Senior Editor, Sports Desk, Corpus Christi, TX

[Drip]

The Scripps Central Desk, which, as of fall 2010, will execute the copy editing and page design for seven papers -- Ventura County (Calif.) Star, Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times, Abilene (Texas) Reporter-News, Wichita Falls Times News Record, San Angelo (Texas) Standard-Times, Redding (Calif.) Record-Searchlight and Kitsap (Wash.) Sun -- needs an energetic, organized Senior Editor/Sports to help run the sports desk. This sports editor works with the sports editors at the seven papers with all of their local content and helps round out the sections with regional and national sports news. This sports editor must be extremely well-organized and like the challenge of finding efficiencies in producing seven sports sections at once. The chief responsibility is booking sections and working with local sports editors but there will be some help needed on the desk to produce pages, sometimes at night. Planning ahead must be a strong suit. Good people skills are a must. A minimum of five years daily experience, preferably at least two as a sports editor or key assistant, is a must. The Central Desk is run by E.W. Scripps and pays competitive salary ($50,000+) with excellent benefits. The desk operates in Corpus Christi, which sits on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, about three hours southwest of Houston and two hours south of San Antonio. The Central Desk won 11 design/editing awards in its first year of operation at the highly competitive Texas Associated Press Managing Editors contest. We currently are ramping up staff to add the Ventura and Kitsap papers.
Apply online at www.scripps.com/careers/jobsearch requisition #1808 in addition send your resume, cover letter, references and cover letter to Jen Meehan Scripps Central Editorial Director, [email protected]

 

[dm19]

Welcome to the future ladies and gentleman.

 

[esport12]

Corpus Christi by itself is a very solid shop. It'll be interesting to see how they handle the California stuff. (I believe they'll have a later deadline for those pages with some people working until 2 a.m. Texas time).

I must say, though, that salary is pretty nice.

 

[Mystery Meat II]

Won't the Kitsap and Redding readers be surprised when the M's-A's game that started at 7 didn't make the paper because Hurricane Alex made landfall?

 

[tripleoption34]

Welcome to the future ladies and gentleman.

...a future that will not have off days in them.

You can get pretty far on $50K-plus on Corpus, especially if you're single. The position interests me, and I will be putting my name in the hat, but there are already some interesting questions being brought up here.

As far as dealing with California, I'd supposed the hours would look something like 6pm-2am in order to deal with the West Coast.

 

[MileHigh]

Welcome to the future ladies and gentleman.

...a future that will not have off days in them.

You can get pretty far on $50K-plus on Corpus, especially if you're single. The position interests me, and I will be putting my name in the hat, but there are already some interesting questions being brought up here.

As far as dealing with California, I'd supposed the hours would look something like 6pm-2am in order to deal with the West Coast.

I'd guess earlier than that. You're booking the section/dealing with the editors at the seven papers.

 

[Stitch]

Since it's a senior editor position, I doubt you're there until the last page is out.

Since it's a combined desk, do the papers work off of similar templates? I don't have any experience with a combined desk.

 

[MileHigh]

Since it's a senior editor position, I doubt you're there until the last page is out.

Since it's a combined desk, do the papers work off of similar templates? I don't have any experience with a combined desk.

Not many people do. This is certainly a grand experience by Scripps, clearly driven by Benjamins.

 

[lone star scribe]

Seven papers a night? I don't care how many templates you have. What's the staffing level going to be for what sounds like 28-40 pages nightly?

 

[esport12]

For what it's worth, Corpus already did some of the pages for the Texas papers. The people there did a good job, and as the ad points out, won several awards. So there is something to go off of.

This could be one of those things that works out great -- and perhaps ends of keeping us employed. Of course, it could be a massive failure.

All I know is the people at Caller Times are first rate. And very good.

 

[Mark2010]

What exactly is this position going to do?

Where are the papers going to be printed?

You're dealing with seven different papers in seven different cities, thousands of miles apart. Does each paper have its own sports editor? If so, what does this position do? Confusing.

 

[Stitch]

What exactly is this position going to do?

Where are the papers going to be printed?

You're dealing with seven different papers in seven different cities, thousands of miles apart. Does each paper have its own sports editor? If so, what does this position do? Confusing.

You work with local sports editors. Basically you're there to run the show on the copy desk, and make sure you get the copy from local papers you were told you were going to get, and fill in the rest. The papers still have to get printed in their home state.

The nightmare for the copy editors on the line is getting info that a local copy editor can find rather quickly. If I need to know what year a kid is, I have plenty of material at my desk. Or confirm the spelling of a name.

I wonder where the photos get toned.

 

[chase.colston]

From what I remember, the "Central Desk" in Corpus will have editors and designers numbering in the mid 50s. So, you're probably looking at about 35 per night to get five people per each paper. Just guessing, though.

 

[Mark2010]

So you basically put the pages together in one location and then ship them electronically to be printed somewhere else?

So you're basically like Super Paginator, seven papers a night? Heavens, what a nightmare.

 

[MileHigh]

So you basically put the pages together in one location and then ship them electronically to be printed somewhere else?

So you're basically like Super Paginator, seven papers a night? Heavens, what a nightmare.

Not how I'm reading it. You get budgets/needs/story play from the on-site sports editors. ETAs of story/photo arrivals, etc. You book the section. Then you hand off those sections to designers/paginators/copy editors who put it all together and ship it out electronically to each respective hometown print press.

 

[Stitch]

So you basically put the pages together in one location and then ship them electronically to be printed somewhere else?

So you're basically like Super Paginator, seven papers a night? Heavens, what a nightmare.

The editor is running the show, not acting in the play. They aren't paying $50k for someone to paginate.

 

[Editude]

Friend talked to the contact about this position before he took another gig. Lots of moving parts, and it is, as Mile High said, an admin/booking/staff managing spot with some nightly page work if absolutely needed. Hours won't be until 2, but it's not a day job either. And the salary is decent for that part of coastal Texas.

 

[MileHigh]

Former well-qualified co-worker talked with them about the position a couple of weeks ago but didn't take it, thus the posting. And the posting says $50K+, so it could be more than that. Another plus: No state income taxes in Texas.

 

[Mark2010]

So you basically put the pages together in one location and then ship them electronically to be printed somewhere else?

So you're basically like Super Paginator, seven papers a night? Heavens, what a nightmare.

Not how I'm reading it. You get budgets/needs/story play from the on-site sports editors. ETAs of story/photo arrivals, etc. You book the section. Then you hand off those sections to designers/paginators/copy editors who put it all together and ship it out electronically to each respective hometown print press.

Honestly, that doesn't make any sense to me. Maybe I'm not getting something here.

You have a local sports editor and a local paginator. You come in, discuss things for a few and go from there. First, why would you need someone hundreds/thousands of miles away in the process? Second, if I'm in, say, California, my section is probably not going to look anything like one in Texas most days.

If I'm the paginator, I don't want someone hundreds of miles away "booking the section". That's my responsibility, along with the responsibility to adjust to breaking news if it happens as the night goes along. Strange.

 

[MileHigh]

I'll try to be more clear.

You don't have a local paginator. The paginators, designers and copy editors are in Corpus Christi.

You have a sports editor in the individual locations. He/she budgets the section, what he/she wants as the lead and in the section and, approximately, where the placement should be in the section. He/she then sends it off to the sports editor in Corpus Christi. Said sports editor in Corpus Christi books/maps out the section for the designers/paginators/copy editors -- again, who are all based in Corpus Christi. The reporters file their stories -- to Corpus Christi. The sections are built there. Designed there. Paginated there. Edited there. Then sent to each papers' presses. Viola! Except, I'm hearing of downed power lines and tornadoes in Corpus Christi tonight because of the hurricane, but those are minor details.

As for breaking news? Different animal. After, say, 6 p.m., too bad. Goes in the next day, perhaps.