Savannah Morning News Sports Reporter opening

SMN's big beat is the high school beat with about 22 schools in the city and a little more than 50 in the entire coverage area. On top of that, Georgia Southern football is big and Savannah State gets its play, but not as big as it probably should with all the problems over there. It sounds like this is more of a general assignment position, although the high school beat is an open position right now, as well. As far as Savannah, the town is gorgeous if you can get over the terrible traffic, especially on the southside. Morris is Morris, but the SMN building is state of the art and the staff is very experienced.

 

Preps would have to be the big coverage. Savannah State and GSU are probably decent coverage items, plus they've got a minor league team. Morris News Service, or whatever they call it, handles all the Braves, UGA, Ga. Tech, NASCAR, etc... But because there's little to cover here, I'd imagine there's a better chance of doing some decent features and enterprise work. It's also a well-designed paper and, in the past, it's been pretty big on centerpiecing more in-depth pieces, rather than loading the front with gamers. Obviously, that's what we all strive for, but I think Savannah has done that more out of necessity since there really isn't anything BIG to cover there.

 

Pretty good description, SC. I've got a couple of friends there and you're pretty well on the money. I guess what surprises me is they're looking for someone with two years experience ... well, actually I'd be surprised if they hired someone with much more experience than that. I always heard they hired young so they could mold them ... in fact that's one of the editors told me when I did a phone interview with them years back.

 

Mold them, and not pay them much. It's the Morris way.

Actually, Savannah might be the only Morris paper I would work for. Great city and a solid paper.

 

That's rather depressing, considering the size of the paper.

 

Hedpe70, you're right on about the Morning News. The preps beat, which is likely what this position being advertised is (although it could be the Sand Gnats beat and/or some desk work), has a lot of schools to cover. The Georgia Southern and Savannah State beats are big, especially during football and basketball season. The paper is located in a new building, a multi-million dollar mansion, that is state-of-the-art. And the sports department does have a lot of experience. The SE has been there 30 yrs., the columnist has won numerous GSWA awards, the SSU reporter won a couple of APSE awards and some GSWA awards, the GSU reporter recently won a GSWA award for a prep game story. And the previous prep writer (now at Macon) just won some Georgia AP and Ga. Press Association awards. The Sand Gnats writer recently retired. They've got two writing openings: the preps and the minor league baseball beats. It's definitely what you would call a "destination paper" because it's in one of most beautiful cities in America. And it's in SEC/ACC football country to boot!

 

Touche.

 

Tim Guidera is an outstanding columnist and a helluva nice guy.

 

Sounds like one of the better jobs to have come open recently.

 

It's still Morris, though.

 

Is Morris bad enough for some youngster to take a crack at it? Probably not. A veteran? Maybe.

 

By Morris you mean the best, most money-wielding chain out there, right?