Sports Writer, Palm Springs, Calif.

Company: The Desert Sun
Position: Wanting to grow as a sportswriter? Come to Palm Springs
Location: Palm Springs, California
Job Status: Not Specified
Salary: Not Specified
Ad Expires: March 14, 2007
Job ID: 735592

Description:
Do you have a passion for writing compelling local sports stories in an environment committed to innovation, multimedia skills, public service reporting and storytelling? We’re The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif., and our award-winning sports staff has a rare opening. We’re seeking candidates with a proven track record in writing game stories, profiles, enterprise and watchdog work emanating from the local high school scene. This position is geared toward preps and feature writing with an emphasis on high school football and boxing. With four professional golf events, as well as world-class ATP and WTA tennis tournaments in our backyard, coverage opportunities abound. This position offers a tremendous opportunity for an experienced writer with an ability to generate your own story ideas and the desire to enhance your multimedia skills. Our staffers are given extensive training on photo and video use, and we also put a premium on Online reporting. We've earned national attention for efforts to bring innovation to our Local Information Center. Our information company also includes several glossy magazines, which affords the chance to pursue different forms of storytelling. The Desert Sun is a Gannett daily with a circulation that hits more than 60,000 during the fall and winter months. We're in the fastest growing county in California, situated just 90 minutes from the beach, two hours from Los Angeles and less than four hours from the Las Vegas strip. Our valley is home to celebrities, fine dining, golf (more than 125 courses!) and an international film festival that is one of the world's largest. You'll also have plenty of space to tell great stories: Our newshole – including space in Sports -- is larger than many metro-sized newspapers. Interested? Send resume, cover letter and examples of your work to Managing Editor Rick Green at rick.green@thedesertsun.com or (760) 200-6823.

 

high school boxing?

 

dude, who cares. It's Palm Springs.

 

Do they cover any Minor League teams out there?

 

Is that like the boxing in teen wolf 2? nice ...

 

Here's what I know: Palm Springs goes heavy on golf, tennis, baseball, and even hockey due to all the transplants in the area from up north. Their SE, Chris Solinsky, is a good guy. From Ohio if I remember right. The newsroom is full of go-getters, young and vibrant.
A lot of the prep schools are relatively new because Palm Springs is such a growing area. Prep sports, in a way, was low on the agenda pretty much but it appears that's turning around due to the families there becoming familiar with their surroundings.
Housing can be pricey, but there are surrounding cities where somewhat reasonable homes and/or apartments can be had. I have no idea on pay, but I would figure it's entry-level range.
It gets ridiculously hot, obviously, in the summer. But for about 3-4 months it gets relatively cool (70s).

 

What is the pay scale for this job?

 

never workd in so cal before but somewhere in the low $30K range sounds doable...or am i inhaling a little too much these days?

 

I would expect it would pay a little more than that. The winter three-step of the PGA event across the valley, LPGA major in Rancho Mirage and top-tier tennis at Indian Wells makes for a busy few months. Occasional big-time boxing at the casinos and a dozen or so core high schools. Q-school is there too. Typical Gannett product, but the area has grown from seasonal to (almost) year-round.

 

It's the other desert, but I spend enough time out here (and once turned down a job here) to know this paper pretty well.

First of all, it's MATT Solinsky, who's the SE. He's a quality guy from my dealings with him.

Second, the Coachella Valley is a quirky market because of the snowbirds. The population doubles between Thanksgiving and about mid-April, when you get a migration of snowbirds from the Midwest and Canada.

During that time, you also have the Skins Game, Bob Hope and the Kraft Nabisco, which also features the largest lesbian party scene in the country. So you've got that going for you, which is nice.

The clubs and restaurants in the area are great, although because of the dichotomy in seasons (summer is like a ghost town there), it can seem rather weird.

As mentioned earlier, the golf there is plentiful and vibrant. Expect to get summoned for yeoman duties on the various events there (Skins, Bob Hope, Kraft Nabisco, Samsung and Q School), since the paper rides Larry Bohannan into the ground writing on the sport. Larry does a remarkable job staying on top of the various golf happenings there, including course openings, and he is one of the most prolific golf writers in the country.

The prep scene there is diverse and interesting. Some pretty good football and soccer teams there and lights-out teams in individual sports like tennis, golf and swimming.

Yes, there's boxing at the casinos and tennis at the beautiful Indian Wells Tennis Center as Editude pointed out. Expect to work hard and write on a veritable plethora of sports.

This is a good gig.

 

Does Tom St. Myer still work there?

 

Yes. Saw him there a couple of weeks ago.