Do it all in Wrangell, Alaska

[Stitch]

I mean do it all, from ad sales, composing, copy editing, layout, writing and shooting photos. I wonder if the last employee died of exhaustion?

http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1250600

Looking for replacement for 10-year employee who has done ad sales, ad layout, page layout, special editions, written stories, taken photos and managed the office for Alaska's Oldest Continuously Published Newspaper. The Wrangell Sentinel is located on an island in the middle of the 17 million acre Tongass National Forest in S.E. Alaska's panhandle 750 miles north of Seattle. Must be tops in customer service for all aspects of this job. The sister paper for the 1200 circulation Sentinel is 40 miles north in Petersburg, where the paper is printed each week. Great job for person who loves small towns surrounded by rugged and scenic mountains, bays, fjords and forests. Located at the mouth of the famous Stikine River, Wrangell is a former sawmill town transitioning to a fishing and tourism community of about 2,000 people. You will join another office staffer and reporter.

Reply to Publisher Ron Loesch via email at: [email protected] with resume, cover letter and six page or ad layouts. Must have minimum of 3 business references stated on application.

 

[Cubbiebum]

I mean do it all, from ad sales, composing, copy editing, layout, writing and shooting photos. I wonder if the last employee died of exhaustion?

http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1250600

Looking for replacement for 10-year employee who has done ad sales, ad layout, page layout, special editions, written stories, taken photos and managed the office for Alaska's Oldest Continuously Published Newspaper. The Wrangell Sentinel is located on an island in the middle of the 17 million acre Tongass National Forest in S.E. Alaska's panhandle 750 miles north of Seattle. Must be tops in customer service for all aspects of this job. The sister paper for the 1200 circulation Sentinel is 40 miles north in Petersburg, where the paper is printed each week. Great job for person who loves small towns surrounded by rugged and scenic mountains, bays, fjords and forests. Located at the mouth of the famous Stikine River, Wrangell is a former sawmill town transitioning to a fishing and tourism community of about 2,000 people. You will join another office staffer and reporter.

Reply to Publisher Ron Loesch via email at: [email protected] with resume, cover letter and six page or ad layouts. Must have minimum of 3 business references stated on application.

Do they really expect someone who has been in the business for awhile to take this job? Why would anyone leave a job that I am sure pays at least as much for a job that you have to do a lot more work? Plus there aren't very many people who can do ad sales, design, reporting, photography and run an office. Well people can do it, just not very well.

 

[lone star scribe]

I can't speak for the job, but the surrounding there are gorgeous. Vacationed there last year, and Wrangell was one of our stops. Cute little town, neat local bars/restaurants. Of course after two days we were ready to move on, so ...

 

[KJIM]

Doesn't seem to me the ad states clearly what the candidate is applying for. Sure, it says what the former employee did, but that was over 10 years. Job descriptions change, tasks are given and taken away.

I started at a publishing company running a press. When I left nine years later I was running the office.

So what are "all aspects" of the actual job here? Maybe it depends on the candidate.

And when it says "you will join another staffer and reporter," does that mean in the entire office or a total of three people will split this job? (Doubt that.)

 

[Cubbiebum]

Doesn't seem to me the ad states clearly what the candidate is applying for. Sure, it says what the former employee did, but that was over 10 years. Job descriptions change, tasks are given and taken away.

I started at a publishing company running a press. When I left nine years later I was running the office.

So what are "all aspects" of the actual job here? Maybe it depends on the candidate.

And when it says "you will join another staffer and reporter," does that mean in the entire office or a total of three people will split this job? (Doubt that.)

The way it reads is you will have one office assistant (secretary/ad rep most likely) and one reporter. You will help some in the office and do some reporting. You also will do most if not all design and most of ad sales.

 

[I Should Coco]

Do they really expect someone who has been in the business for awhile to take this job? Why would anyone leave a job that I am sure pays at least as much for a job that you have to do a lot more work? Plus there aren't very many people who can do ad sales, design, reporting, photography and run an office. Well people can do it, just not very well.

My guess is they'll have to look for quite a while to find the right person ... and not so much because of the job responsibilities, but because of how isolated the community is.

From my limited knowledge of SE Alaska, I can tell you the Inside Passage ferry comes through once a day in Wrangell ... one day coming north from Ketchikan, the next day coming south from Juneau (via Petersburg). Unless you can afford to fly around on small planes, that's it for transportation. And these ferry rides are five, six hours long between cities.

Is it a beautiful area, full of inneresting characters? Hell yeah. And it's outdoors heaven (provided you don't mind some rain).

If I was, say, an empty nester in my 50s, I'd consider this gig. But it would be a really rough place to raise a family or be a young person, not to mention it costs a fortune to live there.

 

[deskslave]

Yeah, I'm guessing it's a three-person office. I'm also guessing that it's a job for a particular type of person, and if you have to wonder if you're that person, it's not you.

On the other hand, it'd be a great job if you were looking to hide from something ...

 

[Charlie_Hustle]

Agreed with the above assessments. I spent a few days in Wrangell in 2008, and it's a gorgeous area — as is most of Alaska, really. Extremely remote, if I recall it was something like a seven- or eight-hour drive back to Anchorage. Remote, tiny area that likely doesn't have the budget for much more than a three-person shop, and a low-paying one at that.

I'd love to go back there, just not to work.