Sports Editor, Martinsville, Va.

I was in Danville for nearly a year and I remember being told that the only way they could go to the Home Furnishings Expo in High Point (a big fucking deal for the furniture industry, which is still hanging on as a player in M'ville) was to ride with an ad rep or someone from one of the furniture companies. Whatever it was, it was the only reason anyone was allowed to leave the majesty of Henry County.

 

Martinsville? I'd rather cover bad Legion baseball with an old fat man leading inane cheers (Gimme an "E"), annoying little kids yelling "get in the gap" every time the bat hits the ball and a guy sitting next to me who thinks he has a cleaver username.
Hello, Melock. I'm glad you joined us.
And welcome Cosmo, it's always a pleasure to see you posting.

 

Is that me, because I'm meat, not a meat-cutter.

 

Anyhoo. Here's the lowdown on the Bulletin (this is the jobs board after all). Sports is a three-person staff. The big things in the summer are a college-league baseball team and Legion baseball. During the school year, it's all preps with four exceptions: Two Nextel Cup races (each is coupled with a truck race), a Late-Model Stock race and a Modified Stock race. Covering the Cup races is really cool; the other two are annoying (especially since they come within a month of each other). But Mike Smith is an awesome guy to work with.
There are four public and one private high school (that doesn't sound like much, but the parent and coach complaints are enough to keep you busy when you're not actually covering something).
Oh, and when you get a complaint, be prepared to bend over for whoever is calling, because management will never (and I mean NEVER) back you up on anything. Management will contradict each other, as well as themselves, make you write the most inane corrections and cover the most useless event to appease an angry caller.
Outside of the high schools and NASCAR, this is also ACC territory, but don't think for a minute that you will actually get to cover any of it -- even though there are local kids on Va. Tech who do get some playing time. Their philosophy is, why should we go when we can just get a story from the AP? Same goes for any NASCAR races outside of Martinsville (even though Charlotte, Bristol and Richmond are all just a few hours away).
They will actually send you further to cover high school playoff games (albeit only when they can't get the story e-mailed from another paper) than they will for a NASCAR race. And when they do let you travel, you get 22 cents a mile (and if it were up to them, you wouldn't even get that).
It's a six-day a.m. with no paper on Saturday. In theory, that would mean that with the exception of Football Fridays, it would be pretty easy to take Friday off, but that is rarely the case. If you're the SE, you can expect somewhere in the mid-20s for salary (writers barely break 20), which is actually not too bad in Henry County, although it's not nearly enough to put up with all the crap you'll be facing. Your writers also will not receive overtime (company policy -- no one gets it), so they will accrue so much comp time that by the end of the October Cup race, they could probably knock off for the rest of the year, and still come out behind.
Also, do not believe for one minute that just because you're the SE that it is your department or your section. You will be second-guessed by the EIC, ME, GM and the photog (yes they only have one photog, so be prepared to take your own photos) on an almost-nightly basis. The irony, of course, is that the GM is the only one of the lot who has even a vague idea when it comes to sports, although he is often so wrapped up in Chapel Hill news that he doesn't pay much attention to anything else. And they will second-guess you on everything -- layout (including photo selection), scheduling, coverage, editing, selection of wire stories, local output and whatever else they can think of.
There's no 401K; they do a straight pension, but it takes a couple of years for it to actually kick in. Benefits are fairly lousy. Basically, they just got the cheapest group coverage they could find.
Martinsville/Henry County is a hole, and it's getting deeper and more barren every day. If you want to meet people or do something, you have your choice of an hour drive to either Greensboro or Roanoke.
I think that about covers it, wouldn't you say, Melock?

 

Decker shot an uncharacteristic 77 today at the State Open. That's all I'm sayin'.

 

So, basically, don't do it.

 

It's interesting how that paper could have Mike Smith as SE for decades -- and I believe he won some VPA awards along the way -- then basically have a fill the position on an annual basis for the past seven years. When I first worked in Danville, Mike was still at the Bulletin and was very hesitant to even share scores from prep games. As soon as he left there for the track, he was the coolest guy to deal with. In fact he was very cooperative in helping us raise our Martinsville race coverage.

My fondest Bulletin memory is standing for the National Anthem before a Cup race. Monte Dutton and another reporter were behind me, whispering something. After the song was over, the SE at the time, who was in the row in front of me, turned around and started screaming at them for disrespecting the flag. Those two just looked at him like he was nuts. I wasn't in Danville too much longer after that, but I believe that guy was gone before me.

 

I never understood why Keith didn't at least try to go pro. Guy can flat out play and he's a helluva nice guy.

 

I'll throw in the final 1 %. What stories you got Colbert? We could share.

 

Mike probably didn't share scores because that was company policy, one we all ignored when I was there. Mike is a great guy. Very helpful. In fact a little too hopeful for the good of a young writer who wants NASCAR clips. Mike writes up stories on just about every driver that comes to test at Martinsville, meaning management would often tell you to use his stuff instead of writing your own.

Also when Mike was offered the job at the track I heard he came back to the Bulletin out of respect for them, seeing if they would match or come close to the track's offer. The paper said they wouldn't fire him for looking for another job.

 

Sounds like a job made for Tucker M, dawg.

 

You pretty much hit the nail on the head. Although you'll be shocked to know that I covered 3 Tech home games and the Tech-Virginia game in Charlottesville when I was there.

The management there is just terrible. Ginny Wray is actually an intelligent, hard-working woman, but she has no backbone when it comes to standing by her staff. That's probably why there is such a large turnover in my opinion. The only time anyone in management says a word to you is to tell you you suck. When I first started there it happened on a weekly basis until a SE came in and said he wouldn't stand for it. Then it stopped until he left a few months later.

The town is very dreary. There are probably about three, four bars you can hang out at, but unless you like addicts, 23-year-old girls with three kids or old fatties you're out of luck. When one of my SEs left (I had three in my 18 months there and that included a stint of three months with no SE) we went to go out for a few drinks and nothing was open....at midnight on a Thursday! And if you like dancing you can't do it after midnight on a Saturday; that's a Henry County law or at least it was when I was there.

Cost of living is cheap as hell, but it has to be because wages are so low. Reporters definitely don't break 20K and the SE might get close to 30K if they have a lot of experience. I never used the benefits so I wouldn't know, but comparing to what I have now they were pretty shitty. No OT sucks, but other than race week you really wouldn't be able to build any up.

The football is decent as is the basketball, but that's about it. One of the schools the Bulletin covers (Patrick County) isn't in Henry County so it's barely covered. The biggest plus about the preps is you'll deal with a lot great people. Troy Wells and Taylor Edwards (M-ville boys hoops and football) are two of the nicest guys out there. Tony Jones (girls hoops at Carlisle, the private school) is a class act and very helpful when it comes to letting you know what's going on with is kids and he's had some good ones. Jay Gilbert (bassett football) is a great guy.

This paper could actually be a really good one because it's so close to a lot of ACC schools and NASCAR tracks, but management, led by a cheap-ass publisher, have been holding it back for forever. My advice is to stay far, far, far away. It may seem attractive because of the locale, but trust me that's like seeing beautiful women holding drinks with umbrellas in them in the desert.