Small daily needs sports editor

And it has a Spangles. So, there's that.

 

That's certainly a plus.

 

I just wonder what part of the state this job exists? Northeast Kansas? Got to be better than working at a convenience store, but you never know.

 

McPherson is 30 miles south of Salina, 60-ish north of Wichita.

To answer an earlier question, yes, Kansas is an at-will state. You don't have to give two week's notice (although it always works out better if you do) and they don't have to give you a reason why they're firing you. So a company can take it's long-time sports editor and just show him the door on a Tuesday in Independence, Kansas.

 

All I know is Stephen Curry is an NBA champion, and that a small-town newspaper managing editor in Kansas is likely to stab a longtime, reliable sports editor/writer in the back and fire him if he stays more than a couple years. It's happened to a lot of my sports writer friends in Kansas.

 

Apeman, Did Independence Reporter show their longtime sports editor the exit?

 

I have friends in several central states, but nobody treats their loyal sports editors like they do in Kansas.

And yes, Sports Guy. Another longtime, loyal sports editor is shown the door, probably so the ad department can have a raise.

 

If they got rid of Brian Thomas, they're fools. Independence Reporter is what it is in the sports department because of Brian. He's a great guy. Yea, Matt Stephens, I'm outspoken as hell about Kansas newspapers because a good chunk of the publishers and managing editors are spineless assholes that think advertising takes priority, and why two-person sports staffs have turned into one. No clerk working at a stupid convenience store should come close to the pay of a sports reporter with a college degree. Pay is crappy in Kansas, too. So someone from Tulsa ought to shut his ugly pilehole when I'm stating an opinion. A real journalist lets everyone speak their mind.

 

I agree with you wholeheartedly, Harley. People in mid-sized towns in Kansas want to read their sports, not matter how jealous it makes the news and advertising staffs. I brought unprecedented coverage to one of those papers and I was rewarded about 5 years ago by getting canned, when the paper chose to have one sports guy instead of two sports guys, because they didn't want to pay me $32,000 annually when my assistant — no longer in the business — was making $24,000. But I had to teach him how to do his job because a college in Missouri didn't teach him how to write right. He was a crummy writer that never got better, and their coverage was 1/4 it was after I left. True story.

 

Note to prospective sports writers — DON'T TAKE A JOB WITH GATEHOUSE! The horror stories at those entities will bring a strong man to his knees.

 

Let's see if I can piece my info together from Facebook, emails and word on the street:

* Jocelyn in Iola was laid off a year or more ago ...
* Brian was just laid off in Indy ...
* The paper in Andover (a Wichita suburb) was closed and the El Dorado paper (Butler County, a decent drive to Andover) is now covering both cities (well, "cover" is a generous term).
* The new owner of the papers in Parsons and Chanute, after promising no major changes several years ago, cut everyone's pay in the newsroom ... then laid off a damn good photog and is making everyone take their own pics.
* The guy in McPherson either retired or took a job outside of journalism.
* Emporia literally had an All-Star cast around the turn of the century, but EVERYONE has left for greener pastures.
* Some of the smaller, private dailies in the region have had no raises in forever (I heard one obits editor who was with her paper something like 20 years quit because she couldn't get a 10-cent raise. A fucking dime. Word had it that her replacement found out she was preggos her first week there and was on maternity leave for the majority of the three years she was there. She was lucky, though, because they no longer have an obit editor).
Most of the other papers in that part of the state have had more turnaround in the sports departments than a Michael Jackson video. One paper that I won't name, from page 1 to end, is 10 times worse than any college -- and most high school -- papers I've ever seen.

 

Handsome Harley: NAILED IT. You have confirmed everything I've been saying.