Sports reporter at The Minot Daily News (N.D.) (updated!)

***Please see below for updated information on this job opportunity***

The Minot Daily News, a 19,000-circulation, seven-day newspaper in northwest North Dakota, immediately seeks a full-time sportswriter to join our four-person team.

The region does feature competitive prep athletics along with two junior colleges and Minot State University, a four-year college in an independent year and one year away from joining the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference in NCAA Division II.

Ideal applicants would have some photography experience, some Quark Xpress experience and be clean writers. Writing clean copy is a necessity, but we will train the right person with Quark and cameras. Quark duties for our sports department are simply formatting scores on our scoreboard page once or twice a week.

To apply, submit a cover letter, resume and work samples to Editor-in-Chief Bryan Obenchain at bobenchain@minotdailynews.com, and please put "sports reporter" in the subject line. Applicants can also mail to his attention at The Minot Daily News, 301 4th St. SE, Minot, ND 58701.

Extra

-- I'm reposting this ad because we now have a 2-bedroom apartment available for two hires that we need. I'll be leaving my post in three weeks to take a different job, and they'll be hiring the next sports editor in-house. So this will be for two sports reporter positions, who will be living with each other in a two-bedroom apartment. The rent is $325 per person a month. Two-bedrooms in Minot go for $1,200, so we got pretty lucky.

I'm sure people will talk about turnover, and that's understandable. My wife and I are moving because we can't afford a house here. Because of the oil and the flood, housing is difficult. This isn't really a job that you can look to settle down with or anything.

On the other hand, if you're getting out of college or if you're just looking for experience, I encourage you to consider this opportunity. It's a 19,000 circulation paper, so it's not a bad start. Nobody here expects you to put in 4-5 years because of the situation here.

One hire will be made ASAP because in three weeks, there will only be two people running a four-person show. It's relatively easy working environment, and there's a lot of freedom to do what you want.

 

Re: Sports reporter at The Minot Daily News (N.D.)

Good luck. I would apply but I'm enjoying making three times as much outside of the business here in Williston.

 

Re: Sports reporter at The Minot Daily News (N.D.)

Chris is a good guy, and Minot is good if you don't mind the cold and isolation from major metropolitan areas. (Some people love that atmosphere). The problem is, as Chris wrote, is housing. When he mentions there aren't places to live, it's not hyperbole.

 

Re: Sports reporter at The Minot Daily News (N.D.)

My sister-in-law just moved up there. Husband is military and went ahead of her and their son. Took them forever to find a house so they could join them. It's insane.

 

Re: Sports reporter at The Minot Daily News (N.D.)

I expect both places I once lived, in Eastwood Park and over by the Riviera Lounge, were both hammered in the flood, since they each were about a block from the river.

Nice small city, with plenty to cover. Isolated, but friendly and the region was actually pretty scenic before the oil boom.

 

Re: Sports reporter at The Minot Daily News (N.D.)

If everything there is great economically, why don't they just build more housing?

 

Re: Sports reporter at The Minot Daily News (N.D.)

Besides finding the labor to build housing and bring in materials, you need city approval for new developments. The new developments strain existing infrastructure. Then you have to think about how if affects services in town.

The backstory on this was North Dakota was burned by a boom-turned-bust in the early '80s. Officials are leery of promises the industry makes.

 

Re: Sports reporter at The Minot Daily News (N.D.)

Hmm, it would make sense then for newspapers in North Dakota to at least provide a sleeping quarters at the office for employees so they will have some place to live.

 

Re: Sports reporter at The Minot Daily News (N.D.)

What a life that would be, right? Get a cot in some corner. At one of my stops, I could have slept in the basement and I don't think many people would have known. I did take quick cat naps on my lunch hour in the basement.

It would make sense for the paper to hold apartments, but rental costs are going up.

 

Re: Sports reporter at The Minot Daily News (N.D.)

The China Daily provides housing, and they're hiring, so have at it.

Look, the town had a housing crunch and THEN lost hundreds of homes in a flood. Those affected are still living in FEMA trailers, if they're lucky. Long-term volunteers who are trying to help in rebuilding are living in a trailerhood on some church's property. Oil workers are sleeping in their trucks in the Walmart parking lot.

That's not the newspaper's fault. That's why they're (and other places hiring in the town) warning people in advance not to apply if there's no housing lined up.

Apartments are being built, but they don't go up overnight, especially if you do them right.

In a perfect world, there would be housing available, yes. But in a perfect world, the floods wouldn't have happened.

You don't have to apply to every job posting. If you don't like the situation, save your time and don't apply.

 

Re: Sports reporter at The Minot Daily News (N.D.)

The cheap chain hotels are the quickest to get built in any oil boom town -- it's just an easier build than an apartment building/complex. I hope they're building as aggressively up there as they have in other boom towns.

 

Re: Sports reporter at The Minot Daily News (N.D.)

Part of the problem with building is the greed. A regular lot that you would put a house anywhere close to town starts at $65,000 and can cost up to $110,000 or more.

People who own apartment buildings are charging anywhere from $800 to $1,500 for a small one-bedroom. If you want to buy any land to build on, you're gonna pay an arm and a leg for it.

I couldn't get the image to pop up, but I'll re-type the ad in yesterday's paper.

7 BDRM, 4-BATH HOUSE
EAST SIDE OF MINOT,
PERFECT FOR A 15-MAN CREW
$10,000/MONTH

Also, I'd like to add that we ARE isolated up here, but it's not like its a town of 4,000 ppl. We have 45,000-plus people here with a variety of restaurants including Olive Garden (that's got to make us legit, right?)
And if you don't think that makes us legit, then you haven't googled Marilyn Hagerty, Olive Garden.

I'll keep you posted if we secure a place to live for a potential hire...