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Sports Reporter, The Minot Daily News (N.D.)

Discussion in 'Journalism Jobs' started by peacer84, Jan 15, 2011.

  1. flexmaster33

    flexmaster33 Well-Known Member

    One of the best skills college journalists should be picking up and seem not to be getting taught. We're willing to train on this, but having this skill coming in would certainly give an applicant an upper hand.

    We have one full-time staffer, who comes in on the sports side for Friday night football and any big state-championship level stuff we may have in other sports. A great help when he's available, but limited hours in that position has left reporters taking the bulk of the shots.

    Our photog adjusts the photos for us as long as we're able to get it done early enough in the day. Any deadline night stuff, we're shooting and photo-shopping, not to mention writing the stories, designing the page and updating the web...the new world of newspapers :)
     
  2. sportsguydave

    sportsguydave Active Member

    Flex.... our shop (Heartland, I might add) just invested in some cool new software that automatically adjusts photos. It isn't going to make a crappy photo good, but it does take average photos and make them good on occasion.

    It works off an FTP server... you drag photos into an input folder, wait about 30 seconds, and then the adjusted photos are placed in an output folder. The whole process takes 15-30 seconds. The only downside I have seen so far is that the finished photos are TIFFs, which makes for big files. But it's pretty cool, especially for a writer like me who is an average photog.

    In our depressed market nowadays, the jobs are going to go to the five-tool players: Anyone who can write, shoot, and lay out pages. At least that's what I keep telling myself. :)
     
  3. LevinTBlack

    LevinTBlack Member

    If I didn't just take a job in Williston two months I ago I would apply. Minot is one of the "big" cities in North Dakota. People here in Williston travel two hours to Minot to do their shopping. Everything I have heard about the paper is good and it seems like a great place to start or take a small step up.
     
  4. I Should Coco

    I Should Coco Well-Known Member

    Nothing against the Minot Daily News ... sounds like a good gig in a growing area. Good luck to all who apply.

    But yes, the trend toward axing photographers sucks big time. I've done the "write and shoot about the game" gig, and it's tough to do both well.

    There's a reason full-time photogs get better action and feature pics at events, and it isn't just the equipment. They have an eye for good art, and concentrate on getting great photos without having to keep stats, track down coaches for quotes, text in scoring plays, etc.
     
  5. peacer84

    peacer84 Member

    Equipment goes a long way when you're talking about writers/photographers. The better the equipment, the better chance of your writers taking better photos. The difference between what a Nikon D300 can shoot in a dark gym versus what a Nikon D80 can do is definitely noticeable. Still, we shoot, keep running score, get the box score, get the quotes, go back and do your photo, type your box and write your gamer.

    For a basketball game that starts at 7:15 p.m., I'm done with all of it by 10 p.m. We don't shoot our own photos for big state tournaments when we host them, but for a regular season basketball game, relax, it's just a gamer. You only have 15 inches to write anyways. If you miss a few statistics, it's not the end of the world. There's only so much you can fit in.
     
  6. Ice and oil

    Ice and oil New Member

    A great shop to work at, from the sports guys up to the managing editor, who has a sports background and understands what it takes to do the job. I worked at the MDN about six years ago and left to take a job in Rochester, Minn., to be closer to the Twin Cities.

    Minot has a lot to offer for a city its size. The college is in the process of moving up to NCAA Division II sports from the NAIA. It has nice facilities for a school of its size and a great group of coaches and administrators to work with. Ditto for the high school coaches in town.

    As peacer84 said, you'll have freedom to handle your beats however you choose. The SE and other sports writers are good writers and good people. If you can handle the bitter cold (in my four years there, I believe the coldest it ever got was about a -50 windchill) for a couple of months a year, this is a great place to live and work.

    I didn't work for the current publisher, but if it's still anything like when I was there, job security won't be an issue. Again, like peacer84 said, they're looking for someone who will stick around for more than a year.
     
  7. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    What happened to T.J. Allick? Didn't he have this job?
     
  8. peacer84

    peacer84 Member

    TJ left the paper for undisclosed reasons. It was a difficult situation for all of us. I'll leave it at that.
     
  9. flexmaster33

    flexmaster33 Well-Known Member

    Doing both is difficult, and equipment plays a big part...but the SE at a sister paper of mine takes fantastic shots, has learned the trade well and runs a solid little web business selling reprints. I'm always impressed when he has something to send my way.

    Something to be said for having that special eye for a shot, but over time you can develop your skills. In our case, we've simplified the boxscores. It was simply too much to try and shoot and ID players, while worrying about who just grabbed that rebound. Now we just track the scoring and other notes for your story. It's just a matter of managing your tasks. Of course, it is a treat when we're able to get a photographer on site and I can focus in more on the game.

    Another trick is to shoot like crazy for a quarter or a half, then put the camera away, so you can pay closer attention to game details in the second half, which is where the bulk of your story will be anyway.
     
  10. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    "It Minot be great, but at least it's not South Dakota," said Larry the Cucumber.
     
  11. I Should Coco

    I Should Coco Well-Known Member

    A Veggie Tales reference on SportsJournalists.com? Awesome!

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  12. peacer84

    peacer84 Member

    The sports editor and I will be sitting down this evening to choose candidates for interviews. We will most likely proceed on Tuesday or Wednesday with phone calls. We will still be taking resumes through this process.
     
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