Sports editor, Daily Journal (Franklin, Ind.)

[superhater]

The Daily Journal, an award-winning paper that still prints five times a week (Tue-Sat) in Johnson County, Indiana, has an opening for a sports editor. You'll be leading a staff with one veteran full-time writer and a solid stable of stringers, covering seven local high schools and one Division III college. Located just south of Indianapolis, the county has high-level prep sports across the board, with team and individual state title contenders just about every season. Local pro athletes include Trayce Jackson-Davis (Golden State Warriors) and Max Clark (one of MLB's top prospects), and we also have several kids competing at D1 colleges, from Ohio State football on down. You'll have the opportunity to cover some bigger events like the Indy 500 and the Olympic swim trials — which we should have multiple athletes at in '28 — but high school coverage is what keeps us alive and (relatively) thriving.

I am the outgoing SE, leaving toward the end of June after the current school seasons end, and plan to continue with the paper on a freelance basis even after I take on a new role at the local college, so I'll be around to answer any questions and/or help my successor get settled. It's a good gig at a paper that punches well above its weight (3x Hoosier State Press Association Blue Ribbon winner), and your bosses will generally leave you alone to do your thing without micromanaging, which I've always appreciated. We've set a high standard in recent years and I'd like that to remain the case, so I'll be helping to vet any serious candidates. Please feel free reach out to me at [email protected] if you're interested and want to know anything else before or after applying. Candidates can send their materials either to me or to editor Leeann Doerflein ([email protected]) beginning next week.

 

[playthrough]

Worked briefly at the Daily Journal many years ago, can attest that it punches above weight.

 

[ChrisLong]

Is there also a North Franklin? I know a former policeman who I think said he worked in North Franklin, Ind. The only memorable thing he told me was that whenever he went to a restaurant, he had to sit in the back, but facing the front door so he could see everybody coming in. Why? He said, because he had arrested nearly everybody in town and he didn't know who would be seeking revenge.

 

[Songbird]

My best experience in Indiana took place in '93 at Deer Creek to watch the Dead.

The opposite Indiana experience occurred last year driving from L.A. to New England when the sheriff pulled me over for no reason ... wasn't speeding, driving with the flow of traffic etc. ... and said that cars with California plates on Indiana roads tend to belong to drug runners.

Told him I'm not a drug runner and that neither he nor the dog would find drugs in the car which proved to be true.

In 2021, found out my mom's mom grew up in East Chicago Indiana and had a magic wand.

 

[superhater]

Updating now that it's been officially posted at JJ.

I'm out in about two weeks so there's a reasonable amount of urgency there; I think they'd like to avoid having much of a void, even with July being our relatively dead period.