Sports Writer - Marquette, Michigan

City: Marquette, Michigan, in the state's central Upper Peninsula
Position: Sports writer, full-time
Newspaper: The Mining Journal

Job description: The Mining Journal is seeking a full-time sports reporter to complete a staff of three after the promotion of the previous sports editor to a larger newspaper in the region.

Our major coverage includes 12 high schools in five counties, with emphasis on our home county, Marquette County, plus an NCAA Division II institution, Northern Michigan University, that is located in Marquette and participates in Division I in hockey and skiing.

Coverage also includes some outdoor sports, which the region has become known for in the past few years. It includes a number of competitive events in the summer and even sled dog racing in the winter.

A bachelor's degree or equivalent experience is required. Photography and page design skills are a plus, but not a requirement. Both will be an integral part of the job and we are willing to train.

Beat coverage is moderately flexible and will be tailored to the staff's interests and/or aptitude.

The Mining Journal is the only seven-day-a-week newspaper in the Upper Peninsula and publishes mornings on the weekend and afternoons on weekdays.

Marquette is the most populous city in the Upper Peninsula with the largest university and hospital in the region. It is located on the shores of Lake Superior in some of the most rugged and varied terrain in the upper Midwest, with three national parks in the region, including Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore about an hour to the east.

Send resume and 5-10 clips to sports editor Steve Brownlee at sbrownlee@miningjournal.net. No phone calls please.

 

Quality town, and if you love the outdoors, it's right outside the city limits.

This would be a good place for a young sportswriter to learn the ropes — including layout and photo skills, as the ad states.

Other members of SportsJournalists.com can vouch for Marquette as the coolest U.P. college town this side of Houghton ...

 

Screw Houghton! Go Cats!

The MJ was my 1st pro newspaper job and Steve Brownlee is quality people! (Hi Steve! Congrats on the SE job!)
I learned a lot there and they sort of took me in as a TV news refugee and I was there for 2 great years. Lots of sports to cover and when I was there it was a good mix of people (this was more than a decade ago, so I can't attest).
Plus, you'll never have to cover bowling! (Steve will take all those stories! LOL)

 

Wow, a daily PM paper? How many are left?

 

It can make for a long Friday that's for sure. But on the flip side, since Sunday is a AM delivery, almost everyone has Sunday off.

 

Can't vouch for the paper but the town has my 100% seal of approval. Go hiking at Hogsback, go downhill skiing at Marquette Mountain or cross country skiing basically anywhere in town. In the summer, there are nice walks along the lake.
Some great bars and a growing list of micro-breweries.

Hell, there are some outdoorsy places within the city limits, like Dead River and Presque Isle.

Tech still sucks

 

Actually, five of the six dailies in the U.P. (and all four owned by Ogden) are PMs. After interviewing at a sister paper in northern Lower Michigan a long time ago, I found out the biggest reason most of them never made the switch is because it can be next to impossible to deliver a paper in the U.P. in the winter before the plows go out.