Lead Sports Assistant- Madison, WI

[Zads07]

From jjobs.com
http://www.journalismjobs.com/job_listing.cfm?jobid=1575249

Company: Wisconsin State Journal
Position:
Lead Sports Assistant
Location:
Madison, Wisconsin
Job Status: Part-time
Salary: Not Specified
Website: http://jobs.capitalnewspapers.com

Description:

The Wisconsin State Journal is looking for someone who wants to grow and develop within our sports department. We are looking for someone to take the lead compiling the nightly nuts and bolts of our prep and small-college sports coverage.

Hours worked are almost always at night (including regular weekends). This is a part-time position working 30 to 32 hours per week, generally in five shifts of six hours each.

We seek an organized, detail-oriented person interested in building and developing desk and leadership skills while keeping a hand in writing. The ideal candidate will be a team-oriented, attentive, get-the-job-done individual who can carry a task from initial request to completion with minimal hand-holding. Understanding of prep sports and meeting deadlines is a must. This person must have experience with Adobe InCopy. Experience is a plus, especially in handling busy prep sports nights from the office. We will provide task-specific training, supportive supervision and an opportunity to grow.

Core duties include:
Assist prep sports editor in leading the phone crew on busy prep nights. Answer calls/faxes/emails; enter results into SportsStats online system, input box scores. Create conference roundups for print and online.

Compile weekly prep sports event schedule using various conference websites. Track rescheduled events. Follow through to ensure schedules, rosters and results are up to date online, working with online sports editor.

Build the Scoreboard (agate page) one to three nights per week, using InCopy.

Writing: Notebooks, features, previews and blog posts on preps and small-college sports, including a leadership role in coverage of UW-Whitewater, which recently swept NCAA Division III championships in football, men’s basketball and baseball.

Starting pay range is $11 to $12.50 per hour, depending upon experience. Valid driver’s license and dependable vehicle with proof of insurance required.

Candidates must apply online at http://jobs.capitalnewspapers.com. Enter as a potential employee and search for jobs in Madison, WI. Deadline to apply is June 16, 2014.

Wisconsin State Journal, 1901 Fish Hatchery Road, Madison, WI 53713

Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer - Pre-employment drug testing applies

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

Damn. That's a hell of a workload and a ton of responsibility. Almost reads like a night ASE position.

All for a top starting range of $12.50 an hour and a max of 32 hours per week.

 

[RonClements]

If this was a full-time position, I might jump on it. The UW-Whitewater beat would actually be quite fun. Good luck to whomever gets this.

 

[Madison Sports]

It's not that unbearable, Burns. The ASE/preps is there on every busy night to take the lead, but needs some time freed up to plan and build budgets and schedules and do long-term planning and systems work.

Everything on that list won't be required every night, obviously. But these are the areas in which we want to see and/or build competency. We wanted to make it clear that while this may not have to be a hit-the-ground-running gig, we'd like a hit-the-ground-walking-at-a-fair-clip person.

This position definitely will do two Scoreboard shifts a week (three in summer), but the Board person rarely has to answer phones and almost never takes a prep call. The rest of the week (five shifts of six hours) will be focused on helping the ASE/preps run the show on busy nights. WIAC stuff will be just two to four hours a week, a matter of keeping abreast with developments, repackaging stats and press releases for blog posts and keeping the prep editor informed about coverage possibilities. Aside from football and basketball (and post-season tournament time), we do just one prep roundup a night, just the highlights, and the scoretakers have been trained to write the recaps so it's just a matter of assembling, coding and editing.

Also, days are generally wide open so this person can supplement income through stringing or a part-time day job. One of my suggestions has been to do features on UW athletes for their hometown papers.

It's not full-time but it does come with benefits. We are committed to keeping the weekly average to 30 to 32 hours a week. And of course the main goal would be to have the person improve to the point where he/she becomes a full-time staffer here (two people ago) or elsewhere (the last person who held the job). Ultimately, with the right hire and a sufficient amount of elbow grease, this could be a train-to-replace situation should a copy editor or preps editor position come open here or elsewhere.

 

[JSkebba]

Wasn't there a WSJ job posted recently that ended up being more hours and responsibility than originally anticipated? Any chance that happens again?

 

[Madison Sports]

I don't think that's exactly correct. We combined two Sports Assistant positions (one that was 28 hours/week and one that was 6 hours/week) into a new 30/32-hour "lead sports assistant" position, then boosted the hourly wage and created a new title to better reflect the responsibilities.