Movement in Springfield, MO

[Moderator1]

From The Pipeline:

Two writers are leaving the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader. Baseball writer Matt Baker has taken a job covering high school sports for Tulsa. Prep writer Allen Vaughn is leaving the business. He will remain a freelancer.

The N-L is trying to replace the prep writer ASAP. Vaughn's last day is Aug. 28, the first day of high school football. Interested parties can contact sports editor Pam Clark at [email protected].

I don't know the status of the baseball position. We haven't opened it up to applications at this point, as far as I know.

We cover about 120 high schools, but focus a core group of about 30 city and immediate area schools. The editor is big on looking for larger enterprise pieces instead of mundane day-to-day things. It's a Gannett paper with a circulation of about 47,000 daily and 70,000 Sunday (last numbers I heard - I haven't checked the ABC in a while).

The last two hires have been relatively young, and they're looking for 2-3 years experience to fill the preps beat.

And in unrelated pipeline news, the newsroom lost two people in the latest Gannett whackings. One feature writer and the only videographer were let go, and their positions were eliminated.

 

[FileNotFound]

Good place to be a prep writer. Lots of good stories, lots of passionate fans.

 

[Simon]

Allen is a great guy and a talented young guy. I wish him the best.

 

[Bubbler]

Springfield's a cool city too.

 

[Armchair_QB]

Springfield's a cool city too.

It's got a monorail.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Springfield's a cool city too.

It's got a monorail.

And a burlesque house.

 

[tapintoamerica]

But it's no Shelbyville.

 

[HejiraHenry]

I had a movement there once, as I recall, overcoming my usual home-bowl syndrome.

 

[checkswinger]

Any idea what this position pays? Let me guess – negotiable. :

 

[Bubbler]

Any idea what this position pays? Let me guess – negotiable. :

Uh yeah. Most jobs are. :

 

[Armchair_QB]

Any idea what this position pays? Let me guess – negotiable. :

Crap-and-a-half

 

[MU_was_not_so_hard]

Any idea what this position pays? Let me guess – negotiable. :

Crap-and-a-half

Only for overtime.
That was too easy.

In all seriousness, Springfield's a decent city and the sports there are good, if only because it's a large epicenter for a fairly bland part of the state. If you're covering high schools there, there's a good chance you'll be making your way to Columbia (smaller area, actually) for state tournaments and such.
Everything I've heard tells me the paper is run fairly well, which in this day and age is nothing to scoff at.

 

[Football_Bat]

Springfield itself seems kind of bland to me, which isn't altogether a bad thing.

I found it interesting to read that it was a pretty big center for folk/bluegrass/country music in the 1950s, before it all migrated south to Branson.

 

[tang451]

(This is Allen Vaughan)
Out of the business? That carries a rough connotation.
Out of journalism? Hardly.
Simon, thanks for the kind words. I decided it's time to try other avenues of journalism, different from the daily newspaper Media Group. I'll keep you all posted, but it's time to put those APSE national award winning skills to work in an alternate way. Anyone looking for a motivated journalist willing to buck the modern business model to do special, innovative things on his own, can PM me with huge money offers...
And if you need a freelancer in the Ozarks (or anywhere else, for that matter), hit me up at [email protected].

 

[checkswinger]

I hear they're not filling the posts right now. Not surprising.

 

[Harry Doyle]

I hear they're not filling the posts right now. Not surprising.

So which is it? Does Allen know if they're going to replace him? An earlier post said they would be filling quickly, but checkswinger says not at all. Who's got the real inside line?

 

[Sir Sid]

This is clearly a big loss for Springfield.
From what I've gathered talking to some people down there, Allen did a lot more than just cover HS sports, blog.
Basically it sounds like he was also the one who somehow ended up being in charge of photo requests for the whole department and also doing all the contacting with freelancers.
Should be interesting to see how this all shakes out.
Thankfully Tang has his budding rap career to fall back on.

 

[brettwatson]

Baker is a good guy too, young but talented.

 

[bake1234]

(This is Matt Baker)

At the moment, neither position has been posted. The News-Leader isn't accepting outside applications. Not sure what will happen with the high school position, but the Cardinals beat is unlikely to be filled any time soon. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

And thanks for the kind words, brettwatson.