Univ. of South Carolina beat reporter, Greenville News

Not sure if Gannett will post anything, but the Greenville News is looking for a replacement for long-time writer Rick Scoppe -- who accepted the SE gig in Jacksonville, N.C.
What I know:

*Gville wants the writer to be based in Greenville, approximately one hour away from Columbia (straight shot down a major highway). Not sure if that means the person will be helping with other stuff or not.
*Reporter will travel to all football and probably most basketball, if not all.
*Circulation is approximately 100k, give or take.
*Pay is generally considered to be very competitive -- significantly more than the two closest papers, Anderson and Spartanburg -- but I'm sure it will depend on who they hire.

Obviously there are some major perks to covering a Steve Spurrier program, most notably the national media's love affair w/ the Head Ball Coach. You'll have a lot of higher profile games.
Also, while Greenville puts a ton of emphasis on Clemson coverage, I've never seen anything that says they ignore SoCar.

 

BWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I think this has the potential to be a very bad job ... then again, I don't think the G-ville News considers its USC coverage to be a top beat these days, so it might not be all that difficult.

As for the city of Greenville? Excellent. Good, good town.

 

An hour to Columbia? Really? When did the Highway Patrol give up their unmarked Corvettes?

 

bingo

 

From mapquest - Greenville to Columbia:

Total Estimated Time: 1 hour 42 minutes
Total Estimated Distance: 103.72 miles

 

i live near asheville and it only takes 2 hours to get to Columbia from here. If you ever need a photographer I'll be more than happy to do it.

 

Never took me more than an hour, 15 minutes. Granted, that was southern Greenville, and I had a Ferrari. Or maybe it was a Pontiac. Can't remember.
So sorry to mislead.

 

A friend is very familiar with this job. They say to be extremely cautious. The Greenville News is a horrible paper, and not just because it's Gannett.

The USC beat was somewhat shielded by the BS because it was based in Columbia. I also hear that they mostly left Scoppe alone - that and the crusty bastard really didn't put up with the BS.

A new reporter working out of Greenville will probably not get the same luxuries. EE and ME are notorious micro-managers who will no doubt have their fingers in the cake if the position is based in Greenville (You may even be required to prove to them a story is worth a trip to Columbia to save mileage).

The SE, however, is a good, mellow guy who protects his people to a point.

Also note that the paper just laid off 14 people. None were in sports from what they told me, but there's not been much to cut for a while.

Hope that helps.

 

All the above may well be true. Also keep in mind that Gannett is outsourcing its University of South Carolina and Clemson copy to other publications. My old stomping grounds is taking Gannett's copy for both schools and seems to be OK with it.

Dunno if that means spit, but anyway ...

 

Sam, you're dead-on.
There be lots o' trading going around in the Palmetto State when it comes to Clemson and South Carolina. Anderson cut it's USC beat in 2005; Spartanburg primarily used a freelancer for USC last fall after moving its college guy off the beat full-time.
In the past three years, Anderson, Spartanburg and Florence have traded or still trade college coverage. That's not to mention Myrtle Beach getting about 99 percent of it's stuff from The State, another McClatchy paper.
I hate to say it because it eliminates jobs, but it's smart business.

 

Wow. A terrible lack of resources, micromanaging top-level editors and tenuous job security. Nothing like setting yourself up for success.

And yet, they'll still get a mountain of resumes.

 

Is it covering the New York Giants for the Times? No.
But it's still not a bad job. There are three major papers covering USC, and this is one of the three. Whether or not Scoppe got some leeway the new jack won't, this paper will remain a player on the USC beat.
You're going to have to deal w/ B.S. anywhere. But doing it covering the SEC isn't the worst thing ever.
And as someone else said, the SE is a cool, cool guy.