Sports Editor, Bozeman Daily Chronicle [Bozeman, Montana]

Company: Bozeman Daily Chronicle
Position:
Award-winning sports section seeks editor
Location:
Bozeman, Montana
Job Status: Full-time
Salary: $40,000 to $45,000
Ad Expires:
July 1, 2008
Job ID: 929442
Website: http://www.dailychronicle.com

Description:
The Bozeman Daily Chronicle, a 18,000 circulation daily in the center of the Last Best Place, is seeking an experienced sports editor to lead our staff. The AP Sports Editors have in the last three years honored the Chronicle as one of the top sports sections in the country for papers its size, and we are committed to continuing that level of quality. Bozeman is home to Montana State University, a member of the Big Sky Conference, and we routinely send reporting teams to far-away places for game coverage (MSU's football team this year has games at Kansas State and Minnesota). We've also chased local stories as far as Alaska, and our former editor won an APSE enterprise award for his Iditarod coverage. Sports matter here, and our circulation is growing. Applicants should send a resume, cover letter, five writing samples and references to Nick Ehli, managing editor, Bozeman Chronicle, 2820 West College, Bozeman, Mont., 59718, by June 20. E-mails can be sent to nehli@dailychronicle.com

Pretty generous salary and doesn't sound like a bad gig.

 

Housing costs are high.

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2007/11/01/news/10cost.txt

You'd be inheriting a pretty good section, though. Past two sports editors have done strong work there.

 

Understatement.

 

That's the nicest way of putting it.

You won't be able to afford a house in Bozeman on that. You'd be pushing it to buy a house in Missoula on that, and Missoula's housing market is lower.

Most people in that salary range in Bozeman wind up buying in Livingston, which is about a 30 minute drive (I think. Been a while since I've driven it).

Guess they didn't find soembody to replace Jeff, eh?

 

Lovely area and a sports-hungry readership, but being 500 miles from major league baseball would be a major hurdle.

 

I'm sure some people will be able to live with that.

 

Wasn't Cnockaert his successor?

 

Never bothered me, that's for damned sure. If you need MLB that bad, why would you bother?

No clue, bump. I'm kinda out of touch these days (tears).

 

Forgive me if I'm repeating myself, but ... as the editor before Jim Cnockaert, I can say without hesitation that in my 30 years as an ink- and cyber-stained wretch, this was the best job in the (last) best place I had -- and I never had a bad job. In my three-plus years with the Chronicle, the steady hum of depressing news at SportsJournalists.com never resonated because it was so distant from my experiences.

Support is terrific, from managing editor Nick Ehli and publisher Stephanie Pressly all the way to corporate in Seattle (they signed off on more than two weeks of Iditarod coverage in 2006 -- a five-figure expenditure). The paper is growing and is vital to the community. It covers Montana State the way a D-I program oughta be covered and doesn't hesitate to travel where warranted. When I left in February, we had six full-timers; we had three when I started in 2004. You've always got a section front, and anywhere from eight to 14 pages on Sundays, depending on the season.

The readership is intelligent and remarkably forgiving, perhaps because there's so much to do in the region that even parents have the paper's role in proper perspective. You're constantly aware that the bar is high anyway. The number of nationally and internationally renowned writers who call this area home is astonishing. And they read the newspaper.

Bozeman has largely escaped the sub-prime crisis. Housing costs leveled off at worst, and are headed back up -- though it's still a good time to buy. McDonald's is offering $10 an hour plus signing bonuses. Spendy? Depends on where you're coming from. It's definitely tough for reporters, but an editor can live here on this salary.

If you're into the outdoors at all, obviously this is heaven. Fishing, skiing, hiking, Yellowstone National Park on your doorstep. It's the only place I've been where hiring night-time part-time help was easy because it offered the chance to ski/fish all day (which us full-timers also often did before putting out pages). The nightlife is surprisingly lively, too, and the weather (lots of sunshine) is not nearly as cold as advertised, this year excepted.

This is the kind of place where, like my old buddy Bob Meseroll at the Missoulian, once you check in you might never leave. Yeah, I left the Chronicle, but only because I had an offer I couldn't refuse in an arena I ultimately found more invigorating than sports. Yet it was still the most difficult professional decision I've made.

I'm happy to answer any questions, either publicly or via PM ... and it's good to be back in the comfortable surroundings of SJ.

-- Jeff Welsch

 

Why did Cnockaert leave? He had only been there a short time, no?

 

Did he leave at all? Or did he just step back down into the columnist role?

 

Nothing amazes me more about this board than its pickiness. Housing prices high in Bozeman? Try Boston. And for what it's worth, my non-journalism job pays approxiimately what this one does.