Sports Reporter, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

From JJobs:

WANTED: Sports reporter to assist with coverage of the high school and college sports scene for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and newsminer.com. Job includes gathering information to write previews, games stories and features for the University of Alaska Fairbanks, local high schools and 20 smaller schools in the area. Must have a bachelor's degree in journalism or equivalent experience as a journalist. One year experience at a daily newspaper preferred. Must be able to communicate well and have solid writing skills.

Please send cover letter, clips and resume to Mr. Bob Eley, Sports Editor Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, P.O. Box 70710, Fairbanks, Alaska 99707 or e-mail the information to beley@newsminer.com.

http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=269010

 

Whoops, apologies mods, accidentally posted on the wrong board. Someone care to move?

 

I was, no joke, just looking at this listing.

 

Current News-Miner reporter here. I was a sports reporter for about 18 months until moving to news in November. I'll gladly answer any meat-and-potatoes questions here.

Here's the only opinion I'll express outside of PMs: Bob Eley's as honest as they come and there's a lot of cool stuff to cover up here.

Nuts and bolts: The man out the door is Matias Saari. He is leaving in March to pursue long-form writing projects. The sports staff will be three full-timers: 26-year vet Eley, five-year N-M writer Danny Martin (who has been a sports reporter in Alaska for much longer than that) and whoever gets the job.

Design duties are generally handled by the four-person universal desk, but the chore often falls to the sports desk. The details are still being smoothed out since I transferred to news, but design experience -- or at least some knowledge -- would be a plus, I assume.

Could say a lot more, but I'm jumping back and forth with a few things, so just fire away and I'll answer when I can.

 

ABL coverage, I assume?

 

Alaska Baseball League is a huge part of the section since there are no high school nor UAF sports to fill the pages in the summer.

The Alaska Goldpanners are the main focus. We push deadline back until 1 a.m. (sometimes later) for the Midnight Sun Game. No travel, though. The Athletes In Action Fire play in the same park, so there's usually a ball game in Fairbanks five days a week from June to August. The season usually ends out of town, so our coverage tapers off unless a local team is having an exceptional year. Also, the involvement of a former Goldpanners player (eg. Barry Bonds, Don Wakamatsu) ups the priority of a national story.

The new reporter will definitely be writing ABL stuff regularly. We had four in sports last summer, and we shared the Goldpanners/Fire coverage among all of us.

 

Probably won't be checking this thread too often, but I held this post before jlee, so feel free to drop me a PM.

 

Any idea what the salary range is?

 

When I was there, they started people for a few months at like $12/hour as a probationary period type of deal, then it kicked up to maybe $14.50 when the period was over (3 months, I think).
The Sports Editor is very good with "if you work any overtime, put it down," so, again, at least when I was there, you picked up some good change on time-and-a-half, especially during the high school football season.
They also gave me $2,000 to move up there.

 

I should emphasize that the numbers I quoted were "somewhere around here" figures. I DON'T (repeat DON'T) remember them exactly, so don't take those figures to the bank.

 

I worked with Bob many years ago at the News-Miner and can tell you he is a very hard worker who is extremely committed to the community and to putting out a quality sports section.

One thing that rarely gets mentioned whenever the N-M has an opening is what a great place the Interior is for telling great stories. I have worked in various markets around the country and have never enjoyed being a reporter more than when I was in Fairbanks. Even when you think you are going out for the most routine event, if you dig just a little, you will find a colorful story. The area just attracts those kinds of people.

If you can deal with the cold in the winter, this would be a great opportunity. (I would say the spectacular summers make up for the winters, but my wife disagrees.)

 

This is very true. Both about Bob being a great person to work for, and about the fact that you can get some GREAT, GREAT, GREAT clips in Fairbanks.