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Yet Again, It's Roswell, NM!

Discussion in 'Journalism Jobs' started by BrianMcDowell, Mar 1, 2010.

  1. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    1) Poertner is a good guy to work for.

    2) It's a fun place to work -- not so much the newsroom (although the collection of folks when I was there was outstanding) but for the diversity of the schools you cover: Roswell, Goddard, NMMI, the 6-man schools (Gateway Christian, Valley Christian, Lake Arthur), and the small schools, which are bitter rivals 6 miles apart: Dexter, Hagerman. And, if you're feeling adventurous (and you should because it has the best football program in New Mexico), there's Artesia with it's sweet stadium, the Bulldog Bowl. Plus there are 3 golf courses in Roswell. There's the Hike It & Spike It flag-football tournament every summer as well as the Gus Macker basketball tournament. Roswell's sporting scene will keep you busy if you have that kind of go-getter mentality. Ruidoso Downs race track up on the mountain is only 45 minutes away.

    It's a great gig for 2 or 3 years -- you're pretty much given freedom to make the sports section what you want. But after 2-3 years you start to understand why young, single people leave. Just not a lot to do in Roswell.
     
  2. Hank_Scorpio

    Hank_Scorpio Active Member

    If you base it on a 37.5 hour work week, pay goes down to $17,550. But, hey, you do get a gasoline allowance. :D



    And I'm sure Songbird is right about the quality of the sports.

    Like I said before, I did spend about a week in Artesia, during an interview/scouting the town out. But I turned it down, since the pay didn't really equal the distance.
     
  3. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    It's great except for the pay and you have the freedom of knowing it's useless to expect a decent wage.
     
  4. txsportsscribe

    txsportsscribe Active Member

    no newspaper gig paying less than $20,000 is a great gig for any amount of time
     
  5. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    all fair points after mine. keep in mind that apartment rents are really cheap (well, they were when i was there. a big apartment in the alameda estates was 350.)

    forgot to add that covering sam jernigan (goddard football coach) makes for a fun 13 weeks. of all the things i miss, covering goddard football is atop the list.
     
  6. Kmac7

    Kmac7 Member

    Didn't you know? You can make $20,000 there if you add in the gas allowance
     
  7. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    I also think that it's a stepping stone if you're young. Put in hard time for 2 years. Be innovative in the brave new world we journalists are entering. Let's face it: It's a "Web-first", real-time world with every passing second.

    Our company -- trashed here for years (and probably rightly so) -- has taken that attitude and hit the ground sprinting. As a commitment to the future, every reporter in the company got HD Flip cams. The first day, a sports guy got State College football coach talking during Signing Day. He put it on the Web within an hour, and the new CEO gave him a $250 cash bonus on the spot. The CEO is turning our company upside-down by making it a Web-first, multi-media platform -- and he is instituting profit-sharing.

    Obviously, the RDR isn't splurging like this. But maybe you talk Andrew into getting a few Flip cams for the newsroom, and you, the eager new SE with visions of being a famous sports writer one day, integrate video on the RDR Web site. Maybe you institute a weekly podcast with coaches and athletes and other local sports personalities (Joe Bauman lived in Roswell forever until he died a few years ago. Same with Sunday Lopez, Nancy's dad, before he died).

    You will not get rich at the RDR. In fact it won't be easy financially. But you'll cover really good sports, you'll build your resume, and if you're a media-savvy go-getter who can establish a Web presence in the Pecos Valley, you can write your ticket to the bigger paper or Web outlet (Yahoo, ESPN, CBS Sportsline, etc.).

    Now, if you do get an interview with Andrew and tell him you want to integrate a heavy Web presence with the print version, and he says it's not really in the game plan, you might want to look elsewhere.
     
  8. Tarheel316

    Tarheel316 Well-Known Member

    Calling Tom Petty. Your dream gig is open again.
     
  9. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    Maybe I could do all of those things, which I can. But if I could do that, I could land a better-paying job as well.
     
  10. nmmetsfan

    nmmetsfan Active Member

    Yeah, let's work on that web presence that nets zero dollars and actually hinders your print product
     
  11. txsportsscribe

    txsportsscribe Active Member

    don't see anyone writing their ticket to yahoo, espn, sportsline, etc., at roswell.
     
  12. BujuBanton

    BujuBanton Member

    I agree. Nobody is going from Roswell to yahoo, etc without several stops in between. I do know a guy that spent a year there and now he's the SE of a bigger paper after a few years working his way up. So it can be a resume builder for a young writer.
     
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