Sports Editor, Nevada, MO

Sports editor wanted The Nevada Daily Mail and Herald in Nevada, Mo., has an immediate opening for a full- time sports editor to cover middle and high school sports throughout Vernon County, the Nevada Griffons college-league baseball team and other sports-related activity. This position provides the opportunity to write about and photograph a wide variety of sports year-round. Sports journalism background preferred. Page design experience with Quark Xpress is required. Some photography experience preferred. Must relocate to Vernon County, Mo. To apply, send a resume and three writing samples to: Editor, Nevada Daily Mail and Herald, 131 S. Cedar, Nevada, MO 64772; by e-mail to editor@nevadadailymail.com; or by fax to (417) 667-3344. E-mail samples should be pasted into the text of the e-mail — no attachments, please (except photos), and NO PHONE CALLS.

 

Holy shit! an opportunity to cover middle school sports! A pity it says No Phone Calls. I really wanted to jump on this one.

 

When interviewing for this position, know it's pronounced Neh-vay-dah.

 

I am leaving the job, by choice, and never covered a single middle school sporting event in three years (outside call-ins from coaches). It is a community sports gig, but I have had Chiefs credentials the past two football seasons (covered home games on my own time), get to cover the Royals whenever I have time and the Griffons gig is pretty fun if you're a baseball guy. If you can live with the pay then there is definitely room to do your own thing here and have some fun with it. I can answer any questions.

 

I've had some personal inquiries so here is some more info. The paper is basically an afternoon daily Tuesday-Saturday. After you put the paper to bed by noon on Saturday you have the rest of that day, all of Sunday and all of Monday off, provided there aren't games. Expect pay to be as it says in the jjobs ad 20-25K, but don't expect to go over that and you'll probably be on the lower end of that without meeting all the experience goals in the job post. The paper is owned by Rust in Cape Girardeau but they aren't too bad. If you do the job well the publisher is great to work for and the managing editor will leave you alone for the most part. The coverage revolves around Nevada High, which is Class 3-4 depending on the sport (800 students). There are four Class 1 schools in the coverage area but they can be covered with coach call-ins and token big-event coverage. Circ. is roughly 3,000-4,000 during the week, much more for the weekend edition, which also encompasses Fort Scott, Kan. Don't worry, there is a guy in Fort Scott to cover that stuff.

 

so joe, why is it pronounced neh-vay-dah?

what the hell is up with that?

 

The guy in Fort Scott is me. We're a separate daily, going M-F, with our weekend edition combined with Nevada. I cover four high schools and a juco and you'll get stories and pics e-mailed from me for the Sunday ed (I always do my stuff late Friday night/early Saturday morning, so it will be there waiting for you when you get in on Saturday morning). I've filled in for Joe a few times on the weekend ed, so if you had some sort of emergency, I could cover for you. Nevada's publisher is ours too and since she was an athlete in high school, she understands the importance of sports. All the computers in Fort Scott and Nevada were recently upgraded, so you'll be working on brand-new stuff.

And my understanding of the pronunciation is that the guy who suggested the name for the town had just come back from the state of Nevada. He could remember how to spell it but not how to pronounce it. Thus "Nuh-VAY-duh."

 

Paging Mr. Songbird.

 

interesting side note here ... a slight threadjack, so please forgive me ... but the legend behind the spelling and pronounciation of Rolla, Mo., is because the settlers originally came from Raleigh, N.C., and spelled the name like they pronounced it.
Missouri is full of names like that. For instance, Haiti isn't pronouced like the island country. It's pronounced HeyTie.
Now, back to an otherwise useful and informative thread with helpful stuff from Joe in Nevada and apeman in Fort Scott.

 

Continuing with the threadjack, don't forget Versailles and Auxvasse. The French pronounciation is not accepted.

 

Wow, two and a half days off straight, I never experienced that, outside of vacations in nine years in this biz.