Sports Editor, Farmington, NM

From Journalismjobs.com


We are renewing our search for a sports editor, and previous applicants are welcome to reapply.

We need a solid, well-rounded sportswriter who also is talented with page design, has pagination skills and a strong will to keep sports news timely updated online. Our hire will be one of two full-time sports staffers and often will direct two other reporters from news who also enjoy sportswriting, along with supervision of stringers and columnists. You must have at least two years experience and a strong appreciation for high school sports.

Baseball is big here. Each year we host many of the nation's best 17- and 18-year-olds in the Connie Mack World Series, along with doezens of Major League Baseball scouts and NCAA coaches. Ricketts Park also played host this year to the NCAA Division II baseball regional playoffs.

We have hosted the National High School Rodeo Finals, as well as special events such as West Division swim meets that prequalify candidates for Olympic trials. We have one of the nation's Top 5 municipal golf courses and host pro-ams each year. Otherwise, it's almost all local, mainly high school competition.

One of our girls softball teams is ranked in ESPN's national Top 20, and this year alone we had four high school teams to win state titles in baseball or softball, with other titles won in soccer, golf, dance and basketball.

We also have a horse raise track where last year's Kentucky Derby winner hailed from, and rock crawl competitions that often get national exposure. Outdoor sports is king here for most folks who move here, with fresh mountain river water from nearby Colorado providing excellent fly fishing.

We seek solid candidates looking to experience lively action at a daily that is the largest media entity in the Four Corners region, serving readers in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and the Navajo Nation.

Pay is in the low 30s; much more if you're seeking outdoor adventure or a different kind of place to practice good journalism.

Now, the standing ad for all our postings:

A documentary film team was here in 2007 to interview us about our newspaper's powerful influence on local racial/cultural issues. Steven Spielberg is sitting on a movie- rights option with a story about Kit Carson and the massive Navajo Nation based in our back yard. Here, yesterday and today are a living link, and the outdoors adventure life is the world's greatest!

Throw in a passion for journalism, and this place rocks! (Pardon the outdoors pun.)

We've won several national awards and fellowships, including from Columbia University where we were asked to speak in New York in 2008 about our investigative and diversity coverage. Ditto in Chicago, Boston and in various other large forums. Our staff eagerly applies for and earns fellowships for advanced training. We also won an Inland Press national award in 2008 for a profile story of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, reported in Venezuela, after talking with him about connections between his oil fields and ours here in the Four Corners. Our editor won the 2009 Robert G. McGruder Award, the nation's highest newspaper honor for diversity leadership and combating racism.

We're in negotiations now with a former CIA/FBI agent to do contract work with us on special investigative pieces by teaming with our best reporters.

We're a small, cozy newsroom, that likes to think big.

No, we don't have a dime to spend. We're just creative in finding one. That's why we're patient in our hiring and hunt ambitious, talented and opportunity-seeking journalists.

Imagine life right in the middle of a western novel: The magnificent Rocky Mountains within view and only an hour to the north. The colorful Navajo Nation only minutes to the west. High desert landscape with endless scenic views and spectacular sunsets right here in town. And, at an altitude higher than the mile-high city of Denver, the weather here is great, with sunshine year-round, cool summer breezes, dry temps and fairly mild winters.

Add to that: the annual Connie Mack World Series for baseball nuts wanting to see the nation's best pro and college prospects; the national high school rodeo championships; colorful American Indian festivals; hot air balloon festivals; some of the best fly fishing in the world; a ski resort an hour away; one of the most modern public libraries in the nation; an awesome indoor aquatic center that has hosted Olympic prelims; the recently ranked No. 1 public golf course in the U.S.; great whitewater rafting and...well...you get the picture.

Farmington, spurred by active oil-and-gas industry, is the commerce center for the Four Corners region, tucked in the northwest corner of New Mexico and only an hour south of the Colorado resorts in Durango. We also serve readers in Arizona and Utah, making us the chief media source for the entire Four Corners region. Furthermore, we know good journalism, we have exciting goals and we aim to become one of the best community newspapers in the nation. We preach local first, and we're darn serious about our goals for quality journalism across the board. That is one reason we will continue our search until we find the right candidates.

We work hard; we play hard. We have many expectations, and we are placing the bar high. Want to join us?

Please send asap a cover letter, resume and work samples to: Troy Turner, editor, The Daily Times, P.O. Box 450, Farmington, N.M. 87499; or to tturner@daily-times.com.

 

New Mexico seems like the pit of the planet but what does it say about Idaho when a rag in Farmington, N.M. pays better than current openings in Moscow, Twin Falls and Kellogg and recent opening in Pocatello and Nampa?

 

Well this is for an editor position, not writer/reporter/designer. It would make sense that an editor job pays more.

 

I cannot remember the last time I went to a horse raise.

 

Doezens of people will apply for this with all those MLB scouts around.

 

I, too, am pretty familiar with this one, so don't hesitate to ask me about anything you might want to know.

 

Can't say I've ever covered rock crawling.

 

Wow - this has to be one of the neediest want ads I've ever read.

"And our newsroom? We're so much fun! We love to dance! And go out! Hiking, whatever, we love it!"

 

It comes open so frequently you can hardly blame the Farmington people for wanting to jazz it up a bit.

 

Wouldn't Durango still be considered remote?