sports copy editor, Columbus, OH

ThisWeek Community Newspapers, located in Columbus, Ohio, is seeking a sports copy editor to join its 14-person sports team. Primary responsibilities are copy editing and assisting in the continued development of staff and freelancer writers. The preferred candidate also will have experience with page design and will be considered for the position of Assistant Sports Editor. ThisWeek is a locally-owned group of 23 community newspapers serving central Ohio. Send resume to: Lee Cochran, Assistant Managing Editor for Sports and Photography, 7801 N. Central Dr., Lewis Center, OH, 43035, or at: lcochran@thisweeknews.com

 

This is a fantastic opportunity for someone. Pay is good. Columbus is a great place to live/raise a family. Hours are good. Lee is great to work for. Photog staff is excellent. The other in-office people, both in sports and on the news side, are excellent. Several of the reporters have been there for some time and know their beats inside and out. The others are younger, aggressive and talented. The higher-ups care about and and are committed to the sports department. Fantastic opportunity. And in this day and age, that's saying a lot.

 

Pay is good? This isn't the Dispatch.

 

This is Columbus. The cost of living isn't that high. That said, the pay is good.

And I'm the one who has had this job for the last four years and been with the company the last 11.

 

So why ya leaving?

 

Personal reasons. The job itself is great.

 

Definition of good?

 

I'm not going to put a number on it because, frankly, I'm not the one doing the hiring and I'm not going to put words in the company's mouth. And I'm not going to disclose what I was paid the last four years, other than to say it was more than fair.

Also, consider this: Of the 14 on staff (including me), we've not had to make a hire in nearly three years. Several of our people have been there more than 10 years and a few are coming up on 10 years. If the pay was not good, do you honestly think that would be the case?

 

I worked at a paper like that in suburban Detroit. While I don't know your particulars, sometimes you make just as good money in the burbs as you do at the major metro.

 

I made decent -- not great, but decent --coin at a weekly paper. I was pleasantly surprised. You can get paid crap at a weekly, particularly in the sticks, but you can also do pretty respectably for yourself, or at least better than some dailies that you'd assume would pay way better.

 

Are the hours any better now than when I left "the competition" 7 years ago? Our sports guys were working an average of 50-60 hrs./week--and not getting paid overtime since everyone was on salary!

 

I second Go Deacs (and probably know him as well) ... ThisWeek is first-rate. The sports guys are very well-versed in what they do, and many probably could have moved on to bigger long ago but like where they are. Cochran is a great guy; interviewed with him back in '03 for a Fairfield County edition that never got off the ground but that wasn't his fault.