Sports Editor, Parsons, KS

[Drip]

From Journalismjobs.com


Sports Editor: The Parsons Sun has an immediate opening for a sports writer/editor. This person covers high school and community college sports and designs pages. Bachelor's degree preferred. To apply, send a resume, clips and cover letter to Ray Nolting, managing editor, [email protected], or to P.O. Box 836, Parsons, KS, 67357.

 

[Songbird]

Some notable locals from the tiny town of about 11,000 ...

Buck Clayton aka Wilbur Dorsey Clayton, jazz musician
Derrel Gofourth, NFL offensive lineman
Bill Guthridge, basketball coach
Clancy Hayes, jazz musician
Shaun Hill, NFL quarterback
Clyde M. Reed, Kansas Governor and U.S. Senator
T. Claude Ryan, designer/builder, The Spirit of St. Louis
ZaSu Pitts, actress
Vernon Schmid, prize winning poet, author, columnist
Clark Tippet, American ballet dancer and choreographer

 

[kamikaze021]

I've heard two different things on Parsons...neither good...but this is heresay, so don't put a lot of great stock in it.

1. They recently changed ownership and they went in and cut about 1/4 of the jobs there.

2. One former SE said to me that they also cut his salary to the point he couldn't work there.

Now that being said, again heresay, Parsons doesn't look like that bad of a place (drive through it when I head home) and Labette Community College's winter sports — they have wrestling as well — seems to either be one of the best or improving each year.

The Parsons High teams — at least football and volleyball — aren't that good (I've heard neither of the basketball teams do well either, so if I'm wrong, please correct me).

You're not far from Pittsburg and Joplin — I think it's 20 and 40 miles respectively — so you're not completely like you're in Garden City or Colby.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

The paper was recently sold to Kansas Newspapers L.L.C., part of Family Media Inc. of Miami, Oklahoma.

http://parsonssun.com/pages/about_us

 

[Football_Bat]

Parsons American Legion baseball team was a state champion in 1999. Other than that, I got nothing.

 

[JJHHI]

As far as I know, everything on this thread so far is true, but I haven't exactly kept up with things since leaving Parsons 3 1/2 years ago. I only know second-hand information about the new ownership, but what I've heard has not been positive. Here's what I can tell you:

• It's a cool little town, if you don't mind small-town living. Cost of living is very low (my wife and I rented a three-bedroom house for $400).
• Some of the best people I've ever known live in Parsons, and if you do a good job, you will be treated like royalty by many of them.
• Some great people work at the Sun, even if the Sun is not a great paper.
• When I was there, I had complete freedom to do whatever I wanted in sports, in terms of what got covered, enterprise, etc.

I would suggest you tread lightly, considering what I've heard about the new ownership, but for the right person, this could be a good job. Not a great job, by any means, but a good one. Heck, the guy before me held it for 40 years.

There are others on here who are more familiar with the current situation than I am, so I hope they'll chime in.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

Like JJHHI said, this probably would have been a good job when it was a Harris paper. Now, I have no idea. Parsons might be a little boring, but probably the nicest town in SE Kansas and Jayhawk Conference JUCO sports are always good.

 

[HandsomeHarley]

I knew the guy that left, and can relay a few tidbits:

He left because the new owner basically cut the pay of everyone in the newsroom. His cut was nearly $4g a year. But to be fair, he also left because he and his wife found jobs in the same area, and his wife makes more.

He seemed to enjoy it there and made friends quickly, within and outside the paper. Said the community was something like 50 years behind the times in things such as buildings, stop signs where there should be signals, and places to shop. But he liked going to Joplin and was close enough to go to Stillwater, Okla., if he wanted.

Only HS sports team in town that was any good was boys tennis. No. 2 HS (rural) went to state in girls basketball, though, and had a girl sign with Mizzou. Covered maybe 6 schools, though I don't know if he actually "went" to any of the area games.

The people at the paper were great, but are leaving in droves. No. 2 reporter quit and owner wouldn't let them replace her. Only photog is desperate to get out, and my friend was told they likely wouldn't replace him if he leaves.

The managing editor was a great guy (I met him) and heard nothing but good things about him. But even with a family, roots and 10-12 years in the community, he is trying to get out.

Only reporter left is desperately fixing up her house to sell it so she can pull up roots and leave. Looked and sounded very overworked (and has bylines in the sports section, too).

They do have two page designers and an assistant ME, but don't know much about them. They weren't around when I visited. Heard the entire front office and ad departments are new, though.

Heard nothing positive about the new owner. "An asshole that runs everything from his fancy house in Miami, Okla., and doesn't give a **** about you." Heard his own wife quit on him (heard the entire front office in Miami got up and walked out at once). And they pronounce it "My-AM-uh" which turns my stomach.

Heard bitching about paychecks being late constantly, so don't write checks the day before "payday" hoping to get to the bank on time.

Myself, I liked Chanute as a town better, but the people seemed fine in Parsons. Still too far away from Kansas City for me (2 1/2 hours up US highways). But farm-folk in small-town America always seems to be great people.

 

[apeman33]

This job has been open since Harley's friend left, which was in May, I think. The ME let me file my story from there in October for the (school I cover)-Parsons game. They haven't sent anyone out to cover Parsons' games, not even at home. The Parsons head coach didn't cooperate with them all season. My stats I gave them were the first they'd seen from anyone involved with a Parsons game all season. The homecoming game was 3 big pics and a very small story. The last game of the season, it was obvious all the info was provided by the rival team's head coach as he had the only quote (The Sun covers the big rival, too, as it's an in-county school.).

The newsroom was deathly quiet as I was filing my story. I think there are good people working there but that moral has been practically destroyed.

The people there still seem to care about putting out the best paper they can under the circumstances and that will be a big plus. But all the other BS seems to be quite difficult to work with.

Keep in mind, I say this from the experience of being there on a Friday night last October for 3 hours. Your mileage may vary.

 

[HandsomeHarley]

One last thought: The townfolk fear (out loud) that the new owner wants to make it and Chanute into weeklies. There was talk that they were planning to get rid of Mondays and make it a Tuesday-Saturday morning paper.

If they do/did lose Mondays, the townsfolk are probably already fearing the worst.

 

[apeman33]

One last thought: The townfolk fear (out loud) that the new owner wants to make it and Chanute into weeklies. There was talk that they were planning to get rid of Mondays and make it a Tuesday-Saturday morning paper.

If they do/did lose Mondays, the townsfolk are probably already fearing the worst.

That's been done. Both Parsons and Chanute are now Tue.-Sun. delivered by mail to every subscriber. They took the idea from Fort Scott and Nevada.

(Edit: Chanute's is still delivered by carrier inside the city.)

 

[Pilot]

Wow. In a fairly questionable decision I turned this job down a couple years ago. Considering where I did go and what it allowed me to stumble in to, and what this sounds like it became, I think I got damn, damn lucky to go elsewhere.

From what I remember, the town seemed cool. Definitely small town, but not a **** hole. Probably what you make of it. The editor I interviewed with was really cool, too. At the time, it seemed like a much better paper than those in similar or slightly larger sized towns.

But, even though that was just three years ago, it all sounds like very dated information.

 

[nmmetsfan]

And another small-town daily bites the dust.

 

[apeman33]

Wow. In a fairly questionable decision I turned this job down a couple years ago. Considering where I did go and what it allowed me to stumble in to, and what this sounds like it became, I think I got damn, damn lucky to go elsewhere.

From what I remember, the town seemed cool. Definitely small town, but not a **** hole. Probably what you make of it. The editor I interviewed with was really cool, too. At the time, it seemed like a much better paper than those in similar or slightly larger sized towns.

But, even though that was just three years ago, it all sounds like very dated information.

Everything changed practically overnight once Harris sold it. The new owner sounds like a fly-by-night kind of person.

They redesigned the paper a bit, including a new flag. I checked it out while I was there. It's pretty ugly.

Right now, even though it's the stepchild, Chanute is actually in much better shape of the two. And it's not exactly perfect there, either.

 

[pagemonkey]

Well, I stumbled on this site and this topic, and figured I could provide some pretty pertinent details.

A poster above mentioned that the guy who had the job before him had held it for 40 years. That would be Jack Harris, a semi-legendary figure in Kansas sports journalism, mainly by dint of his longevity.

Next was, I'm guessing here, the poster above, who, if I remember right, was a young fellow who did a good job and moved on to bigger and better things.

Next was some guy who didn't, apparently, do a good job and basically got canned.

Next was, well, me. More on me in a second.

The last person to hold the job was Harley's friend. I had heard (after I left) the same things Harley reports about the situation.

But there's a new twist, now. It seems Kansas Newspapers, L.L.C. is ALREADY SELLING THE PAPER.

That's how I stumbled on this site. I was looking for info into the sale, which I heard of from a local businessman, a pretty reliable source. I can't say it's 100 percent true, but if I hear more I'll report back.

As for me, well, I had a couple of problems. One, I had a lot of big ideas about doing really, you know, interesting features and long-form stories. I did a whole feature about cross-country running, for instance. I thought it was pretty good. I wanted to call it "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner," but the m.e. didn't get the reference.

Anyway ... it turns out to be difficult to pull off that kind of goodness when you're limited to 5 hours of overtime a week, and there's football games and tennis and other sports to cover if you want to do even a half-ass job ...

And, add to it all, I was going through a terrible freaking time in my personal life, and, as it turns out, suffering from severe depression. So that didn't help at all.

For all I know, most of the problems I encountered may have stemmed from the depression. At the time, I just thought I was in a bad mood because I hated my job. Turns out it may have been the other way around.

I don't think, though, that even in the best frame of mind, that I'd have loved the gig. The local sports scene is truly awful, and you are limited in what you can cover, unless you want to do a lot of it on your own time.

And, now it looks like everything's even worse than it was when I was there. On balance, I may have gotten out at the right time for all the wrong (or at least unavoidable) reasons.

So, that's what I know. I saw this and I just had to chime in, since I had so much first-hand knowledge.