Sports Editor, The Dickinson (N.D.) Press

Full disclosure: I am the former sports editor and have recently been promoted to managing editor. We are looking to fill this position as quickly as possible since we are now entering the slow weeks between the winter and spring seasons. I will do Skype interviews. Despite what you may have heard about western ND and the oil boom, we have temporary lodging available for employees at a very affordable rate. Plus there is a lot of building going on in Dickinson with much of that being apartment complexes, twin homes, condos, etc. so the affordable options are literally springing up every day. If you have any further questions beyond what is explained in the job description, please contact me at the email listed below. This is the posting that has gone up on Journalism Jobs:


The Dickinson (N.D.) Press has an immediate opening for a Sports Editor.

The Press is a six-day morning newspaper (no Monday edition) with a 7,200 print circulation and a growing Web base that serves the country’s third fastest-growing micropolitan area.

The ideal candidate will be able to manage a sports staff that includes a sports reporter and a part-time clerk/copy editor, be a self-starter able to produce a strong balance of features, columns and enterprise stories alongside typical game recaps and previews, maintain a sports staff blog, develop a social media base and help institute any other new ideas he or she may have. The sports editor also manages the production of a handful of special projects, including a fall high school football preview, a Dickinson State football preview and a high school basketball preview.

The focus of our coverage is 13 high school teams in southwest North Dakota as well as Dickinson State University, a successful NAIA program. In the summer, The Press covers a highly competitive American Legion baseball club, professional and amateur rodeo, and the local dirt-track auto racing scene. The summer also brings opportunities to cover golf tournaments, recreational sports and an annual high school football all-star game between North Dakota and Montana.

The sports editor’s beat focuses on Dickinson State — we try to cover the football team as if they were a Division I — while also helping the sports reporter with a prep beat. We cover two high schools in Dickinson and 11 others in the surrounding area during the fall, winter and spring.

The Dickinson Press sports department swept the North Dakota Newspaper Association’s 2012 sports awards in its circulation category and has been the recipients of numerous awards for reporting, design and column writing in recent years.

This is an excellent position for someone looking to gain valuable experience at a daily newspaper. Many of our recent sports editors and sports reporters have moved on to larger newspapers or to higher positions within Forum Communications Co., which owns The Dickinson Press and several other newspapers in the upper Midwest.

Applicants must:

– Have a journalism degree from a four-year college.

– Have two years of journalism experience at daily newspaper. Recent journalism school graduates with internship or daily newspaper experience are encouraged to apply.

– Be able to write, edit and produce a strong sports section under tight deadlines.

– Have the ability to design three to five pages a day on Quark Xpress.

– Have strong decision-making, communication and interpersonal skills.

– Be a motivated, self-starter who can produce award-winning ideas.

– Have a valid driver’s license and a driving record that is insurable by the company.

Please send a cover letter, resume and no more than five clips writing clips and samples of page design and sports photography to Managing Editor Dustin Monke at dmonke@thedickinsonpress.com no later than April 5.

 

BA and two years experience for a 7K paper ... sigh.

I guess this is what the market will bear.

 

A journalism degree? Really? A must-have?

I understand asking for a degree, but as I didn't major in journalism and did just fine, I feel it's a little extreme to require those specific words on a sheepskin. I'd lend far more weight to be ability to write than what a candidate majored in.

Guess there's no harm in asking.

 

How far is it from Fargo?

 

About 300 miles.

Edited to add: Billings, Mont., is about the same in the other direction

 

It's a good, smaller paper with an excellent sports background. The teams in and around Dickinson often play for championships.

I know the ad says journalism degree, but I'm sure if you have a degree and at least some experience, it's worth sending your stuff in. Send your stuff in anyways. It can't hurt.

 

So what bigger papers have previous SEs and reporters have moved on to? Anything decent?

 

The Sports Editor at the Mining Journal in Michigan's UP got his start here straight out of school. The sports reporter when I first arrived soon left for Elyria, Ohio (he's no longer there). One of our sports reporters spent nearly three years here as a part-timer before getting the first full-time job and is now at a sister paper in the company and is regarded as one of the top young sports reporters in North Dakota. We had one reporter come from within the company and leave to return to school for his graduates degree.

Way back, in the long, long ago we had guys who ended up with the AP and at other company newspapers where one is now the managing editor. Also, one of the Billings Gazette's top sports guys got his start here.

We haven't had a whole lot of turnover as of late, but there is a good history of sending people onward and upward throughout the entire newsroom.

 

Spotlighted without comment.

 

Dickinson is kind've isolated and cold, but from all accounts not a horrible place to work.

 

Any updates on this one?

 

So, they'll be looking to fill this spot quickly?