The Advocate adding a Saints writer and preps writer in New Orleans

All,

We have two freshly created positions in the sports department at The Advocate, which is based in Baton Rouge, La. As part of the paper's expansion into New Orleans, we're adding two reporting jobs.

The first is a full-time position covering the New Orleans Saints. Our long-time NFL/Saints beat writer lives in Baton Rouge, but we need someone in the Crescent City in order to compete fully with the Times-Picayune.

The other job is a prep reporter position, who will be tasked with overseeing coverage of roughly 75 area high schools in New Orleans. No lie, that position will be a bear for the person who lands the gig.

Also, we still have an opening for a copy editor/designer on our desk.

You can find in-depth descriptions at the following links:

Saints Beat: http://theadvocate.com/utility/6232829-129/sports-department-for-a-full

Preps beat: http://theadvocate.com/utility/6232822-129/sports-department-for-a-full

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me off list.

Have a great afternoon, folks.

Matthew Harris
LSU Basketball/Football Reporter
The Advocate
7290 Bluebonnet Boulevard
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70810

 

Interesting.

My only concern regarding the Saints job would be just how committed the Advocate really is, or wants to be, particularly online.

The Times-Pic, whatever its flaws, has an absolute army devoted to Saints coverage and they are posting minutiae about the Saints 'round the clock.

I just checked out the Twitter of your current Saints writer and, well, it doesn't give the impression that online is a big part of your strategy. (Don't get me wrong, he may doing a bang-up job in print). But from a national perspective, my concern would some shmuck like me waltzing in and then just getting buried under the avalanche of coverage from Nola.com because the Advocate doesn't have the infrastructure or the desire to compete online. There's nothing wrong with a print-first strategy, but it's not exactly a career-advancer for the reporter at this point.

 

Seventy-five schools and multiple teams at each for one person? Holy shit.

Very glad to see someone adding jobs. Best of luck to the two who land these.

 

Pompano,

We're in the midst of expanding a digital presence, and it's a transition we're not shy in making. Is it where we want it. Not yet. But, I think the change in ownership will help. I've been here six months, but there's a definite shift in the thinking. When I arrived, I sensed the mindset being, 'We'll do just enough to satisfy a bare minimum, but reporters are working for the daily.' Now, we're not swinging fully in the direction of Advance, but we've expanded into video, online chats, etc. It's a work in progress, but my bosses aren't shying away from the reality: Online matters.

As for how that relates to the job, you'll get input into what direction we go, what's working and what's not. If a method or project doesn't produce the results we want, well, we'll go back into the lab and tinker.

That said, we're not the T-P. We're not all-in on digital. Readers in NOLA, or at least a segment, have been vocal that the solely online approach isn't what they want. So while the T-P is doing minutiae, I don't know if the market has overwhelming voted for that being the dominant means of disseminating news. My sense is we want digital to be a piece of the portfolio, and the reporter on the ground will get a say in how that's shaped.

I don't know if that will allay any and all concerns, but it's not as if our editors are Luddites.

Matt Harris

 

Rod Walker, long-time preps writer for the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss., has tweeted that he got the preps job.

Not sure who got the Saints job.

 

It appears it's Ramon Antonio Vargas: https://twitter.com/RVargasAdvocate/status/362541810809176064. It appears he was a news reporter for the Times-Picayune previously: http://www.southlakessentinel.com/uncategorized/2013/03/11/ramon-antonio-vargas-new-orleans-times-picayune-criminal-justice-reporter/.