Sports Editor, Stillwater, Okla.

[User 25243]

From JJobs: http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1353400

Company: Stillwater NewsPress
Position:
Sports Editor
Location:
Stillwater, Oklahoma
Job Status: Full-time
Salary: Not Specified
Ad Expires:
June 1, 2012
Job ID: 1353400
Website: http://www.stwnewspress.com

Description:

Wanted: Sports editor with juggling skills to fill position vacated by in-house promotion. The Stillwater NewsPress, a 7,000 circulation, Tuesday through Sunday newspaper, requires a sports editor who can balance Big 12, high school and community recreational sports coverage via print, web, multimedia and social media tools. The three-person sports staff covers Oklahoma State University sports, but that's just the icing. High school sports coverage is the cake. We emphasize our coverage of Stillwater High School and nine other high schools in the area. The NewsPress also covers youth and recreational sports in our community. The Stillwater NewsPress also provides OSU story and photography coverage for all CNHI news organizations in Oklahoma and West Virginia. Great organizational skills are a must. The ideal candidate also should possess Quark Xpress page design, writing, editing, AP Style, sports statistics and photography skills. Email resumes, references and work samples to Editor: Ms. J.B. Bittner at [email protected] or mail them to: J.B. Bittner, PO Box 2288, Stillwater, OK 74076

 

[JJHHI]

If you don't get this one, take heart: You can apply again in a couple of months.

 

[michaelbuhler]

What's the scoop on this position?

 

[JRoyal]

This is open again?

 

[HandsomeHarley]

The water might be still, but the SE position is a revolving door.

Sent my stuff a while back and was blown off. I think the guy was a bit intimidated.

 

[dirtybird]

Three always felt like a lot for such a small paper.

 

[Steak Snabler]

On the plus side, I hear the local college football coach is very media-friendly.

The three-person sports staff covers Oklahoma State University sports, but that's just the icing. High school sports coverage is the cake.

Maybe it's just me, but that's the totally wrong attitude to take in a college town where the local squad just finished in the Top 5.

 

[tripleoption34]

The post-Dan Marino QB situation in Miami looks stable compared to this.

 

[writingump]

If you put prep sports on a pedestal above a Top 5 college football program in your hometown (bear in mind that the rest of OSU's athletic program isn't half-bad, either), that tells one all you need to know about this place's priorities.

 

[Mark2010]

They're CNHI for starters. Most of the serious OSU coverage is done by the Tulsa and Oklahoma City papers for whatever reasons. They really aren't managed any differently than similar-sized papers that don't happen to be in a college town.

No way are they going to add staff just because there are a few college football and basketball games in town.

 

[Matt Stephens]

They're CNHI for starters. Most of the serious OSU coverage is done by the Tulsa and Oklahoma City papers for whatever reasons. They really aren't managed any differently than similar-sized papers that don't happen to be in a college town.

No way are they going to add staff just because there are a few college football and basketball games in town.

Exactly. Sure, it's the hometown paper, but there's really not a reason for Stillwater to overload the Pokes coverage with a circulation at 7K. I honestly think it would be a bad coverage idea to do so because the market's saturation is going. Sure, you'd love to be the go-to source for OSU sports updates, but the truth is, you just can't.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

They're CNHI for starters. Most of the serious OSU coverage is done by the Tulsa and Oklahoma City papers for whatever reasons. They really aren't managed any differently than similar-sized papers that don't happen to be in a college town.

No way are they going to add staff just because there are a few college football and basketball games in town.

Exactly. Sure, it's the hometown paper, but there's really not a reason for Stillwater to overload the Pokes coverage with a circulation at 7K. I honestly think it would be a bad coverage idea to do so because the market's saturation is going. Sure, you'd love to be the go-to source for OSU sports updates, but the truth is, you just can't.

Maybe part of the reason the circ is only 7K is they dropped the ball on OSU coverage. You're not covering Stillwater if you aren't covering Oklahoma State, both in sports and on the news side. Sure, OKC and Tulsa have some advantages with bigger staffs, but Stillwater has the advantage of being the hometown paper. Plenty of other small papers in college towns do fine against the area metros.

The other thing is CNHI also owns the paper in Norman. A company that actually wanted to try might figure out a way to take advantage with some sort of OU/OSU website or something.

 

[Mark2010]

True. I worked for one CNHI paper in another market. They cover what's there and spend 99.99 percent of their time worrying about the bottom line.

This is the company that mandates 5 furlough days per quarter for editorial employees, but not ad staff, never adjusts the size of the paper based on ad demands (Oh, we just had a 3/4 page ad come in, there goes your nation page of sports page or whatever). What I saw was they care very little about journalistic content and actually have reporters punch a time clock similar to auto assembly workers.

Yes, they could build a nice website with both OU and OSU stuff, as well as preps. Someone else who wants to invest will probably come in and do that, but investment is a foreign concept to these rats.

 

[CarlSpackler]

How hard would it to be to sell ad space to T. Boone Pickens in exchange for pumped-up OSU coverage?

 

[Mark2010]

T-Boone's got bigger fish to fry, like Tulsa, OKC, ESPN, FSN, web sites, etc. It would take some work to get the SID staff to simply remember your name. You would be a very small fish in a big pond.

 

[Football_Bat]

Stillwater High has an enrollment of 1473.64 students, according to the OSSAA. That's a below-average 4A in Texas.

Too bad the bosses are from Alabama.

 

[chase.colston]

Stay far away. Working the graveyard shift at Walmart is a better choice than Stillwater. Seriously.

 

[phoenixrising08]

Avoid at all costs. I can't emphasize that enough. And yes, I did work at this "newspaper."

 

[Mark2010]

I guess I shouldn't be nosey, but what did they do to you?

 

[PBOWKER]

What Phoenix and Chas said. There are big reasons. The list of former NewsPress journos is very long; there is a reason why an entire newsroom has changed over at least twice over the last three-four years. One of the former SEs quit without having a job lined up. Same for two previous top editors, photo editor, etc. Check previous threads.