Prep sports reporter, State Journal-Register, Springfield, Ill.

To Springfie ... oh wait.

 

From what I've been told they're only looking to pay about 20,000 to 22,000. But of course that little birdie could be wrong.

 

At a 60k? You gotta be kidding me.

Then again, it is the CNHI clone. Maybe they'll lay you off in six weeks after moving you 1,500 miles, like they did with a 60-something news reporter at a former stop of mine.

Fuckabuncha GateHouse.

 

I enjoy the preps beat and would love to work it, but like I told my wife, you'd have to to pay me a lot of money to take one these days. It seems those are the first positions they let go.

 

I figured the preps beat would be the safest in this climate. If a paper's in business, you'd think they'd have someone covering preps. But I guess if a shop had several people on preps, that could be the first place to trim.

 

These guys cover preps like mad -- especially basketball and football -- even when I was growing up there.

Virtually every conference contest is covered for the 4 city schools (their league isn't too spread out), plus they do a good job with the "area schools" as well. For the bevy of annual christmas tournaments, they have almost a whole page of box scores. Preps is the safest thing here if you relate it to inch count in the paper and/or stories online.

Plus, the core group of bylines hasn't changed much in the past two decades, so you'd have great reference points among the staff for historical purposes.

 

Two things that have been said on this threads seem crazy to me. The notion that this job would only pay low 20s is crazy. I interned there for $400/week not that long ago. Of course that was under Copley ownership). You'll get more. The market is cheap, but this isn't TV. The other mystifying comment asserted that a preps job isn't safe. I cover preps exclusively and wouldn't do anything else. In a struggling business, what content cannot be pulled from wire services? That's where your safety net is.

In my mind, this is a safe job to take. There are three other reporters, and everyone covers preps. Robert Burns has been in Springfield a long time and covered the Class 3A/4A teams in the Central State Eight. The people here are good to work with. Dave Kane and Marcia Martinez are good people who have been at the paper for years. I worked with them during my summer stint there, and kept in touch during my time in Decatur.

You don't do desk work, you write. If beats stay the same, you cover a core group of big schools that routinely produce state-caliber teams and not too long ago, Andre Iguodala. I grew up in Springfield so I'm a little bored with the place, but I can't really knock it. Affordable and in good proximity to a bunch of other places. Damn good preps, too.

Want any more thoughts, feel free to message me.

Andrew Petersen

 

You might think that, Andrew, but recent evidence is showing nobody is truly safe.

You're ascribing logic to business practices that are highly illogical.

 

I'd love to apply for this job and move north to Springfield and cover just preps and not have to worry about anything other than covering preps. This might be the exception rather than the rule, but you can't deny that several newspapers cut staff and they start with new guys and preps.

Also, I've been to Springfield once. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but for a state capital it's seems to be a dump. The only thing worth seeing there would be the Abe Lincoln presidential library, which I plan to take my son to some day.

 

I wonder how may applicants they are going to receive for this gig? Sounds like a decent place to live and a notch above entry level.

 

The library is boring, but the museum is faaaaaaantastic.

 

One thing's for sure. Blago won't be applying. Didn't even live in the town as the gov.