Sports Reporter, Times-News (Twin Falls, Idaho)

The Times-News has an opening for an experienced sports reporter.

The Times-News sports section has a loyal following of readers in print, online and through Twitter, Facebook and during live blogs. You’ll get a chance to write a regular column, write enterprise pieces and interact with readers on a variety of platforms. This is a career opportunity for a sports writer looking to fill your portfolio with great clips.

Twin Falls is home to the College of Southern Idaho, which has one of the premier junior college athletic programs in the nation.

This is an affordable community with great schools and if you love the outdoors, you’ll have access to great hunting, fishing, kayaking, rock climbing, hiking and mountain biking.

The Times-News is a 17,500-circulation daily newspaper (21,500 on Sundays) owned by Lee Enterprises. It offers a competitive salary, medical, dental, vision, and life insurance benefits, vacation, sick, holiday pay and 401K-retirement plan.

To apply, log on to www.magicvalley.com/workhere. In addition, email samples of your best work to Editor Autumn Agar at aagar@magicvalley.com.

We are a drug-free workplace, and all applicants considered for employment must pass a post-offer drug screen prior to commencing employment. EOE.

 

You won't get rich here, but you could do worse for a first or second career stop, especially if you don't mind a rural place.

 

I know a lot of people like to knock Lee, but my experience at a Lee paper was pretty acceptable. Yes we faced the same issues other places do these days and some of us would grumble about corporate stuff from time to time. But the managers treated us pretty well and gave us enough room and freedom to do quality work when we were willing to put in the work.

It was far, far better than a Gannett shop where I had previously worked. Just one man's experience.

 

Glad to see this job being filled. A lot of good people have worked there ... like three of my co-workers, including my ME.

 

Not trying to sidetrack the thread since I'm not really looking, but just out of curiosity, what is the general perception of Lee Enterprises? I always see people slam Gannett, CNHI, Paxton, Halifax, etc., but never really hear much about Lee. In fact, just in these last few days I've seen more bashing of Lee than I had before.

 

Based on my own experiences and what I have heard from others, I would rate Lee a notch or two above the other chains you mentioned.

Look, all newspapers, chains or independent are struggling as revenue-producing models. If I were an investor, I would not pick newspapers to invest in. But as an employee, to me the difference is how the management --- both corporately and locally --- reacts to those new realities. On that front, I think Lee has done a better job of creating a decent work environment for its employees.

When I left Lee, it was because I wanted out of a certain town. I never got a pay raise in my years there --- or anywhere else. The only times in my entire career I have ever gotten a raise were when I left to take a different job. That was just sort of understood as a fact of life in the business, so I didn't whine about it. No one else in the newsroom was getting raises, either. I negotiated a large enough wage at the start that I could survive for however many years I needed to without getting a raise.

We had a good network among other Lee papers in our region where we would share stories and photos... when we wanted to. We rarely, if ever, got dictates from corporate that we HAD to run certain stuff... no Gannett "mainstreaming" or "diversity" drives. Editorial decisions were almost always made at the local, rather than, corporate level. We had regular all-staff meetings where the publisher would moan and groan about declining revenue and increasing expenses.... but that was usually directed at advertising and not the newsroom.

Yes, we had a couple of layoffs, but no furloughs. On the times when it was necessary to suck it up and put in 50-55 hours a week to get a job done on time (if you've worked in sports, chances are you know what I mean), they'd let us slack off the next week or month to come up for air.

Several of my former colleagues left for 9-to-5 jobs in the corporate world that paid better and had more normal working hours. Never begrudged anyone that. And when I decided to leave, no one bad-mouthed me... in fact, they gave me a going-away party. So my experience was pretty decent. Perhaps others will have different reactions.

 

I'll agree with Mark2010. Management style makes all the difference.

I started working for a Lee paper on the news desk in 2007 after a bad experience at my previous stop. I'd worked with the ME and city editor (at the time) before, so we all knew what to expect of each other. When I got back into sports in 2008, the ME (now the EE) pretty much handed me the keys and, while there's been the occasional fender-bender, no major wrecks. OK, an occasional haggling session over travel, but even that ends out lighthearted. As I've said before, she admits to not knowing much about sports so she a) trusts my news judgement; and b) when the idiots call to complain, totally has my back. The marketing director is a coach's kid and played D1 softball, so there's help there too.

Lee's holdings in this state are pretty spread out, so there's not as much interaction as there may be among, say, the Montana papers. But when I've had teams stray into the turf of another Lee paper during regionals, getting help has never been a problem.

 

Sorry for the dearth of updates, as I've been busier than a one-legged man in ... well, you know. At any rate, this position has been filled. Thanks to those who applied for their interest, and best of luck down the road.