Sports Editor, The Robesonian

The Robesonian, an award-winning daily newspaper in Southeastern North Carolina, is looking for a sports editor to manage a three-person staff. Ideal candidate will be someone who has worked as a sports reporter at a daily newspaper, or someone who has worked as a sports editor at a weekly newspaper. This is not an entry level position. Strong management skills are a must. A candidate should possess good writing and editing skills, and know how to lay out an interesting sports section. The focus is high school sports and The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, but there will be limited opportunities to cover some ACC, NASCAR, and professional football and basketball. Pay and benefits are competitive. Send resume and clips to Donnie Douglas, editor, The Robesonian, at ddouglas@heartlandpublications.com.

Wow. First they advertise for a sports writer, now an SE. What is going on there? This place is heading toward Martinsville status.

 

wow.... they just had an opening for an SE in July....I'm looking for work and in the area, but I'm not this desperate.

 

OK, this is Donnie Douglas, figured I might need to visit this place.

What is going on is that Joe Myers, our sports editor, resigned after two months. I have read these threads before, and even commented once using Khary McGhee's account. I signed in under my own name today.
You can speculate on why Joe resigned, or you could call him at (910) 272-6119 and ask him. I would prefer that. I assure you it wasn't because of me or the job, but that's as far as I will go on a public thread. I can tell you I was very disappointed b/c the sports staff has been kicking butt and it was very noticeable.
Whoever takes this job will have two young guys who are recent hires to teach. Both are really good guys, one is a recent UNC grad and the other graduated from UNCP and really knows the area.
If you are really interested in the job, you can call me at (910) 272-6104 anytime after 10 a.m. when I get off deadline.

 

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=big+honking+red+flag&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

Needed to add more emphasis to my earlier pull.

 

Is this a PM paper? I only ask cause he says get off deadline at 10 a.m.

 

Not sure why you think it's a red flag because it is an afternoon paper (assumed to be anyway).

 

Work enough split shifts (put out the paper AM, cover a game PM, sleep 4 hours, write 40 hours on your time card) and then get back to me on that.

 

Bottom line--Donnie Douglas is hard to work for...That paper is his own little kingdom and he runs it the way he wants...As I am sure Donnie will attest when he reads this...The people in Robeson County take their sports VERY seriously...I actually had two drunk guys camping outside my apartment in downtown Lumberton to express their disapproval with a column I wrote...Then, when the coach called Donnie to berate him, he took the coach's side and told me not to cover the games anyone...Yet, as hands-on as he was/is, he read the column before it went in and said it was okay....You'll find a ton of those Catch 22's with the guy...

My advice---Stay far far away!

 

I did that very thing for a couple years. You're right, it wasn't ideal, but I don't consider it a red flag for everybody -- especially considering you know the schedule coming into it. I'm sure there are plenty of people who don't mind that schedule at all and would just be happy to get a job right now.

 

Fuck that. I work at a p.m. paper. I do hate the splits (although I try to avoid them by getting permission to get my pages done at night whenever possible).

But nobody ever has to work more than I write down on my time card. I keep hearing how that's the norm in all these papers, and I keep hoping for someone to pressure me into doing it so I can have a big fat lawsuit on my hands, but no one ever does it.

 

I held this job. Donnie was great to work for, but we already did this dance. Pay probably sucks, the town isn't the best, but the job is fine. As Donnie said above, if you are interested, give him a call or the sports editor. I loved the split shift, but it's not for everyone.

 

Yeah there's both good and bad concerning the split shifts:

Good -- When I'd cover a game at night, 99% of the time, that was it for the night. I'd get to go home right after the game and I'd write my story in the morning. And since we worked 4 hours in the mornings (7-11), the games we covered at night counted as 4 hours (and it was rarely more than 3). And if it was a spring sport that had afternoon games, even better. I remember covering softball games at 4:00 that only lasted 45 minutes because of the 3 inning mercy rule. I was home by 5:30. My SE would tell me to go ahead and mark it as 4 hours.

Bad -- Getting off at 11am but knowing you're not done working for the day was a sucky feeling.