Ketchikan, Alaska

[Charlie_Hustle]

From jjobs... We've seen this one a few times before ...

Company: Ketchikan Daily News
Position: Sports reporter/editor
Location:Ketchikan, Alaska
Job Status: Full-time
Salary: Not Specified
Ad Expires: May 19, 2011
Job ID: 1248267

Description:

Sports reporter/editor in one-person department of family-owned
newspaper. Cover high school, middle school and community basketball,
baseball, football, soccer, volleyball, wrestling, cross country,
track etc. in a small community with an outdoors lifestyle in the
Tongass National Forest. Lay out sports pages. Journalism degree or
sports reporting experience required. Benefits: paid vacation, profit
sharing, 401k, paid holidays, medical and dental insurance, sick
leave. Send resume, clips and cover letter to: Tena Williams, Co-
Publisher, Ketchikan Daily News, P.O. Box 7900, Ketchikan, Alaska,
99901. [email protected].

 

[playthrough]

I interviewed for this gig while in college and was really intrigued. Just seemed like a heck of an adventure. Alas, they didn't fly people out for visits and I didn't feel adventurous enough to move to a city sight unseen. Nor was paying my own way for a visit from the southeast to Alaska much of an option. But every time this ad comes up, I wonder what that job would have been like.

 

[Matt Stephens]

Pretty sure I stopped there one time during a cruise from Vancouver. Beautiful area with very tasty reindeer jerky.

 

[jlee]

Knew a couple of folks who worked there. If you're looking to cut your teeth and get some reporting experience under your belt, it's not bad. You just have to accept that it's not easily accessible (as in remote, as in you won't leave this town of 8,000 people much), rains a lot (amend that: all the time) and you'll be a one-man band.

You can find some great stories, kick some ass and move on to something more living-wagey.

 

[Stitch]

It must be a rite of passage to get a phone interview here. I had mine a few years ago. Pay was around $26,000 and they don't help with moving.

 

[DanOregon]

You can probably get away with not having a car since there is only about 10 miles of road there. I figure it's the kind of job you do for one school year. I think you would definitely want to talk with someone who has been there to know what it is like and what to expect. I think one of the Girls Next Door used to live there, and I'm sure there are other resources on the Web to get an idea of what the place is like.

 

[Mark2010]

I echo what the others have said. Decent place to get real world hands-on experience. Isolated as hell, so thank God for the internet. Nice place to visit; not sure if I could live there without going stir crazy.

One of those places where you either: (1) put in your 1-2 years, get experience and leave or (2) fall in love with the place and stay the rest of your life.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

You can probably get away with not having a car since there is only about 10 miles of road there. I figure it's the kind of job you do for one school year. I think you would definitely want to talk with someone who has been there to know what it is like and what to expect. I think one of the Girls Next Door used to live there, and I'm sure there are other resources on the Web to get an idea of what the place is like.

And I believe there is a company car for reporters to use. Not completely sure about that though. Thought I saw that in an ad posting for this place once.

 

[Football_Bat]

The climate is Seattle on steroids.

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?akketc

 

[novelist_wannabe]

Does Alaska still pay the pipeline dividends (or whatever they're called)? Assuming you stayed more than a year, wouldn't you get that in addition to the 26k?

 

[LanceyHoward]

Does Alaska still pay the pipeline dividends (or whatever they're called)? Assuming you stayed more than a year, wouldn't you get that in addition to the 26k?

Think so, but Alaska is expensive. I would think they would have to ship everything in via boat to Ketchikan. When I visited Alaska three years ago even gas was more expensive because it was refined somewhere else.

 

[Stitch]

The dividend is $1,281 per resident this year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Permanent_Fund

 

[SoCalScribe]

I don't know anything about this city, but I believe the state does run hundreds of millions of dollars into a budget surplus pretty much every year because of all the resource money, so the benefits and social programs up there are bound to be pretty generous. At 26k, you very well might qualify.

 

[Stitch]

I don't know anything about this city, but I believe the state does run hundreds of millions of dollars into a budget surplus pretty much every year because of all the resource money, so the benefits and social programs up there are bound to be pretty generous. At 26k, you very well might qualify.

If you have a family, there's little doubt you'd qualify. I qualified for SNAP and Medicaid at $32,500 in the lower 48. Income limits for state benefits are higher in Alaska and Hawaii.