SE or Sports writer, Martinsville Bulletin

Two separate postings on jj.com

Previous writer position open 2/12: http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/posts/3263274/

Wanted: Sports writer for a three-person sports department at 17,000 a.m. in Southside Virginia. Successful candidate will cover the Martinsville Speedway's two Sprint Cup races each year as well as preps, area college teams and other local sports; edit copy; and paginate with Quark XPress. New grads with experience as well as sportswriters on weeklies or those looking for new challenges are welcome to apply. Send resume and clips to Ginny Wray, Editor, Martinsville Bulletin, P.O. Box 3711, Martinsville, Va. 24115; fax 276-638-7409; email (.txt ) only files to ginnywray@hotmail.com

AND

Sports editor needed to lead a three-person section at 6-day 17,000 a.m. in Southside Virginia. Successful candidate will plan the 3-8 page section, make assignments, cover games, write features, edit local and AP copy, and do pagination on QuarkXpress. Night and weekend work involved. The Martinsville Bulletin covers the Martinsville Speedway's two Sprint Cup races each year as well as preps, area college teams and other sports, with emphasis on local sports. The ideal candidate will have experience at leading and producing a daily sports section. Send resume and clips to Ginny Wray, Editor, Martinsville Bulletin, P.O. Box 3711, Martinsville, Va. 24115; fax 276-638-7409; email (.txt ) only files to ginnywray@hotmail.com

 

Re: SE and Sports writer, Martinsville Bulletin

As someone who used to work in Martinsville, I cannot recommend working for Ginny Wray. She's a micromanaging dinosaur who knows nothing about sports, but still wants to have her hand in the department.
Martinsville is about 45 minutes from Blacksburg, but the Bulletin doesn't ever cover Virginia Tech because, as Ginny told me when top-ranked Miami was coming to town for a football game, "The AP can cover it better." I told her it might be more convenient to have the AP cover it, but she shouldn't say they can cover it better.
It is hyper local, even when it comes to NASCAR. They don't cover any NASCAR races outside of the two per year at the Martinsville Speedway.
Very frustrating place to work.

 

Re: SE and Sports writer, Martinsville Bulletin

This may have been answered in previous Martinsville threads. But why does she use a Hotmail account? Doesn't the paper have its own email system?

 

Re: SE and Sports writer, Martinsville Bulletin

Ginny needs to update her ads:

 

Re: SE and Sports writer, Martinsville Bulletin

Usually, Ginny says previous applicants need not apply.

 

Re: SE and Sports writer, Martinsville Bulletin

Micromanaging editors generally mean bad things for a sports department.

 

Re: SE and Sports writer, Martinsville Bulletin

Here we go again.

 

Re: SE and Sports writer, Martinsville Bulletin

I wanna hear why BOTH the SE and sports writer are leaving before I jump to any conclusions ...

 

Re: SE and Sports writer, Martinsville Bulletin

Better jobs would be my guess but I dunno.

 

Re: SE and Sports writer, Martinsville Bulletin

As the guy who's leaving, I figured I should get on here to clear up a few things.

There's only one job opening, not two. I was the sports editor of the paper since late January, and I'm leaving to take a job at the News & Record in Greensboro. I believe the paper is leaning toward hiring the new SE internally at the moment, but since the two remaining members of the sports department are still somewhat new to the paper, the management wanted to open the search for a new SE to a few more experienced candidates. The sports staff is at two and needs to get to three. So essentially, if the Bulletin hires a sports editor, it won't need a sports writer, and if the Bulletin hires a sports writer, it won't need a sports editor. Make sense?

This position primarily consists of preps coverage, but it also entails coverage of two NASCAR Sprint Cup and Truck races (and a Late Model race, a couple more NASCAR related things during the year), a Coastal Plain League summer baseball team (Martinsville Mustangs), selected ACC and junior college sports, community coverage and more.

Working here will make you do a little bit of everything: page design, writing, taking photos, copy-editing, ect. If you don't like working at night, don't apply. The standard hours are 4 p.m. until midnight.

I read above of complaints about Ginny Wray "micromanaging" the desk, but honestly, other than my first few weeks as sports editor, I didn't really have that problem. She pretty much left us to our own devices, but she would let us know if we missed a story or if we made a mistake (I'm not sure how that differs from management at other places, though).

The paper is small as is the town, but the last two hires here (as entry-level writers out of college) each got a job at a bigger paper within two years.

I think that about covers it. Let me know if you want more information or have any questions.

 

Re: SE and Sports writer, Martinsville Bulletin

What happened to Sam Jackson?

 

Re: SE and Sports writer, Martinsville Bulletin

Sam's still there. He works in the news department.