Sports designer/copy editor, Durham, N.C. (DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!!!)

The Herald-Sun has four reporters in sports, I think.

 

The paper covers the ACC.

 

Six days later and nobody can think of anything else? Guess that about covers it, then. ;D

 

Lone star, it's a Paxton paper. That alone should scare off anyone. I once worked for a Paxton paper so I speak from experience.

 

Ditto here, Tarheel .... I know the feeling all too well.

 

Man, you guys are awful hard on Paxton. How come? I mean a job in Durham sounds pretty good to me. How can it possibly be THAT bad? Although four reporters to cover all of sports in that area seems slicing it pretty thin to me. How can college and high school, and even the pro stuff get covered? Still, it's a place that would seem worth investigating and working at ... but I don't have the expereince some of you apparently have had.

Would love to work somewhere on Tobacco Road someday. College Hoops is the best and there's no better place for it than there.

 

Huckleberry,

Then, by all means, apply. Those four reporters are damn good people, and Dascenzo is one of a kind.
Tobacco Road is great from a hoops perspective. It's just not all Dickie V and Stacey Whatsnhername and Cameron Crazies. More often than not, it's Mike Hogewood and the Crazies doing their tired chants that were thought up years and years ago.

 

Huckleberry, I think you answered yourself at the end of your post. One who has experienced Paxton knows the deal. If you work at a Paxton paper there is no job security. Any day could be your last.

App is right about Dascenzo. He is one of the best in the business. I have spoken to him numerous times at ACC games. I think he's getting close to retirement so Paxton pretty much leaves him alone, just like the SE in High Point.

 

Huckleberry, read the whole thread. There are links on page 1 that shows what kind of company Paxton is.

Like Tarheel said, there is absolutely no job security there.

 

I reiterate:

Paxton fired 25 percent of the paper's newsroom staff the day after it bought the paper in 2004 --- among them, a photographer who had been there 50 years and was close to retirement.

This may help ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Herald-Sun_(Durham%2C_North_Carolina)#Paxton_Media_Group_buyout
http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A27101
http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A23460

I found some interesting stuff on the Wikipedia article's discussion page, as well.

 

Kinda interesting to look at the circulation decline since Paxton took over.

Surely, you can't blame all of it on Paxton, but a decent chunk could be attributed to the cut in staff and less news.

Paxton bought the paper in December, 2004. So in two years, it lost 10,000 subscriptions.

Weekday Saturday Sunday
2003 50,612 --- 56,363
2004 49,800 53,500 54,200
2005 42,298 39,835 45,793
2006 39,000 34,000 41,000

 

Hank, the circulation drops like a rock at every paper they take over. They are toxic, perhaps the JRC of the South.