Sports Editor, Pine Bluff (Ark.) Commercial

It's been going without a sports editor for a little while after the last one was fired.
One of the sports writers is heading to The Sentinel-Record in Hot Springs, while the other is apparently heading out of the business and seeking his teaching certificate.

 

Correct. Going five months (minus a month when they hired a guy then fired him) without an SE took its toll on both guys. They had to cover 20 HS and two colleges and work the desk. They both decided to move on.

 

You can look at this thing 2 ways. On the one hand, red flags go up that the entire sports department is leaving, the department has been like a revolving door and Pine Bluff is not the most desirable of places to live. Or ... the new SE can come in and set up the department exactly the way he/she wants it with a new publisher in place and crank out some pretty good stuff. What sports editor would not want to have the chance to start from scratch and place his/her stamp completely on the newspaper's sports section? And the new publisher is from an editorial background, which often helps the newsies. Just my .02 and complete disclosure I work for the same company.

 

What's the pay and has it been filled? Just curious.

 

Not the most desireable places to work? What's that comment supposed to mean? I don't know anything about Pine Bluff. What's wrong with it?

 

A few years back, Time or Newsweek named Pine Bluff the worst city in the United States to live in.
It had the highest crime rate in the country and an economy falling apart at the seams.

 

Pine Bluff, simply put, is just nasty.
One doesn't get a good sense about the place, when people working at the Commercial have to park in a place completely surrounded by a tall fence to keep their vehicles from being vandalized.
Otherwise, I would know of some people who would show some interest in the position.

 

I doubt their parking lot is the only gate lot in the biz. Apparently the Newsweek folks havent been to Jackson or Shreveport.

 

I so want to make a Beck Cross joke here.

 

Wait until I get a jacket before telling it, Jay. Told about a person who is cold, that's Beck.

 

I will tell you also that there is a lot of racial politics in Pine Bluff. The town is 50% black and 50% white, and as of 10 years ago or so, there wasn't much of a bridge between the two communities. One African-American radio guy in PB used to call it "Plantation Pine Bluff" on his morning show.

Little Rock is only 40 miles away but it might as well be 40 years.

 

Jay, What does Beck Cross have to do with The Commercial job?


Football Bat: Race hasnt been a big problem with the town or paper. Six white guys have covered UAPB (HBCU) the past six years and had good relationships. Never heard of much racial tension in the city. PB gets a bad wrap but its overblown. The economy isnt good with some crime (LR is much worse per capita), but it isnt Watts or the Southside of Chicago, either There are some good, hospitable people (all all races) there.