Two senior editor jobs, Sporting News

Wow. That is a shocker. Is he out at TSN totally or just removed from the position?

 

Just found out that Jeff will be around for a little while. He probably won't be the one making a decision on the vacancies. I've been told if you sent something to him, it will get to the proper people.

 

Maybe Jeff D didn't like the idea of picking job applicants' brains for free ideas to be snagged by TSN whether those folks got hired or not. ;D

 

Reinforces my original post about doing 2-3 days of "homework" with no promise of even a response. Granted, you do what you have to do, especially if you are new or inexperienced. However in my 30 years of newspapers that was the biggest "homework" assignment I have ever seen.

 

Why would it take 2-3 days to do what they asked?

 

Read the requirements. If I were your boss at the Sporting News and asked you to create that plan I'd expect you to spend a couple days on it, at least.

 

You've probably already got your resume and clips handy. If it takes you 2-3 days to come up with a coverage plan for a breaking news story and one great idea for an upcoming issue, you probably don't have what it takes to work there.

 

How about keeping your coverage plan and your great idea handy, too, so that you can talk about them with the Sporting News editors when they call you up for an initial phone interview? Why just lay it all out in written form and drop it over their transom, never to hear from them again?

It is all fine stuff to talk about with their final list of applicants, but to ask EVERYONE who is mildly interested for their ideas and suggestions seems like casting about for free brainwork.

If these really are "big boy" jobs, then the people they'll be considering won't be complete unknowns. They at least will have credentials, references, resumes, clips/tearsheets, etc. Save the "what can you do for us" specifics for the people who survive the preliminary cutdowns.

 

I don't think the Sporting News or its deposed editor were trying to get free ideas. I do think it is a very arrogant way to seek applicants. The best people won't jump through those kinds of hoops.

 

Neither will I.

 

The devil is always in the details. Great magazines and great sports sections spend days, weeks, months planning. The winner in the TSN horse race won't cross the finish line first by finishing his "homework" assignment in 45 minutes.