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Sports Editor, Parsons, KS

Discussion in 'Journalism Jobs' started by Drip, Nov 14, 2008.

  1. nmmetsfan

    nmmetsfan Active Member

    And another small-town daily bites the dust.
     
  2. apeman33

    apeman33 Well-Known Member

    Everything changed practically overnight once Harris sold it. The new owner sounds like a fly-by-night kind of person.

    They redesigned the paper a bit, including a new flag. I checked it out while I was there. It's pretty ugly.

    Right now, even though it's the stepchild, Chanute is actually in much better shape of the two. And it's not exactly perfect there, either.
     
  3. pagemonkey

    pagemonkey New Member

    Well, I stumbled on this site and this topic, and figured I could provide some pretty pertinent details.

    A poster above mentioned that the guy who had the job before him had held it for 40 years. That would be Jack Harris, a semi-legendary figure in Kansas sports journalism, mainly by dint of his longevity.

    Next was, I'm guessing here, the poster above, who, if I remember right, was a young fellow who did a good job and moved on to bigger and better things.

    Next was some guy who didn't, apparently, do a good job and basically got canned.

    Next was, well, me. More on me in a second.

    The last person to hold the job was Harley's friend. I had heard (after I left) the same things Harley reports about the situation.

    But there's a new twist, now. It seems Kansas Newspapers, L.L.C. is ALREADY SELLING THE PAPER.

    That's how I stumbled on this site. I was looking for info into the sale, which I heard of from a local businessman, a pretty reliable source. I can't say it's 100 percent true, but if I hear more I'll report back.

    As for me, well, I had a couple of problems. One, I had a lot of big ideas about doing really, you know, interesting features and long-form stories. I did a whole feature about cross-country running, for instance. I thought it was pretty good. I wanted to call it "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner," but the m.e. didn't get the reference.

    Anyway ... it turns out to be difficult to pull off that kind of goodness when you're limited to 5 hours of overtime a week, and there's football games and tennis and other sports to cover if you want to do even a half-ass job ...

    And, add to it all, I was going through a terrible freaking time in my personal life, and, as it turns out, suffering from severe depression. So that didn't help at all.

    For all I know, most of the problems I encountered may have stemmed from the depression. At the time, I just thought I was in a bad mood because I hated my job. Turns out it may have been the other way around.

    I don't think, though, that even in the best frame of mind, that I'd have loved the gig. The local sports scene is truly awful, and you are limited in what you can cover, unless you want to do a lot of it on your own time.

    And, now it looks like everything's even worse than it was when I was there. On balance, I may have gotten out at the right time for all the wrong (or at least unavoidable) reasons.

    So, that's what I know. I saw this and I just had to chime in, since I had so much first-hand knowledge.
     
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