Sports Editor - Washington Times

I would suspect soon. Spring training. Final Four. NBA and NHL playoffs Redskins and Ravens draft and OTAs coming around within the next six months. Lot of quick decision need to be made.

 

They're also looking for a page designer: http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1227424

The Washington Times is seeking an experienced and versatile page designer to join its fast-paced universal news desk that produces news, features and sports pages.

The ideal candidate will possess exceptional news judgment, strong skills in content- driven design, the ability to meet tight deadlines and strong skills in copy editing.

Applicants must have three years' experience working at a daily newspaper. The position requires working nights.

Please e-mail cover letter, resume and design samples to careers@washingtontimes.com.

 

I'm wondering what kind of tack the sports section will take. Certainly it would be silly to try to compete head-to-head with the Post. I'm guessing it will rely a lot on opinion and features, sort of the old "PM" philosophy. Will they invest the money to cover preps, too?

 

I don't think it'd make sense for them. The Post does schools very well and given the transient nature of the population in D.C., especially the population (politicos) they've generally targeted, there isn't as much to be gotten from it.

 

Nice to see they're bringing the sports section back, but how many talented writers did they lose when they dumped it over the summer? Whoever made that decision should be looking for work, as well.

 

I disagree. They have to develop a strong base and preps is the easiest way to do so. However, being that D.C. is a big pro sports and college town, there's no question that those areas have to be covered well if the section and the paper is to survive.

 

I'm almost positive they will go with the contract writer/editor and freelancer model. I'll be shocked if more than 3 or 4 FT'ers with benefits hired -- and those will be editors. No way they are going to start budgeting several million dollars in salaries alone for a complete metro sports staff.

 

Several million in salaries? Um, no.

When they folded, TWT had 25 full-timers and a part-timer. If the average salary was above $50K, I'd be very surprised.

 

More than half were writers. Three ASEs. The rest were desk. And the part-timer split duties between desk and writing.

 

First, I think your numbers are off for an expensive market like Washington, D.C. You can assume the columnists and sports editors all had to be making around a minimum of 80K-plus, and probably closer to six figures. To get to your average of 50K people at the bottom end had to be making as little as 20-25K. Hard to believe that. Even AOL Patch pays better than that.

But for the sake of argument, let's go with your average of 50K:

Twenty-five FT staffers at $40K each equals $1.25 million in salary. Add another 30 percent for benefits, workman's comp, etc. and now we're at somewhere around $1.6 million. And again, I think that number is way low. Even still it's doubtful the paper would be willing to add another $1.6 million in sports department salaries.

 

No, my numbers are not off. You are wrong.