Sports reporter, Farmington New Mexico

Like baseball? The week this posting is being filed, we have 30-plus Major League Baseball scouts and around 20 NCAA coaches in town scouting the best amateur talent in the country at the Connie Mack World Series, hosted annually here in Farmington, New Mexico.

Like the outdoors? ESPN and various magazines will time to time feature outdoor rock-crawl events, mountain bike rides or Olympic hopefuls working out here in the amazing Four Corners outdoors scene. The Colorado state line is 30 minutes up the road, and majestic mountains await. Camping, hiking, fishing, horseback riding, Jeeping and hot air ballooning are among favorite local hobbies.

We're high desert here in Farmington, more than a mile high, but plush forests and water falls are a mere hour away.

We need a solid sports reporter looking to experience lively action at a daily that is the largest media entity in the Four Corners region, serving readers in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and the Navajo Nation. The position also requires pagination/layout/design skills.

Pay is in the mid-20s in $$; much more if you're seeking outdoor adventure or a different kind of place to practice good journalism.

Now, the standing ad for all our postings:

A documentary film team was here in 2007 to interview us about our newspaper's powerful influence on local racial/cultural issues. Steven Spielberg recently was sitting on a movie- rights option with a story about Kit Carson and the massive Navajo Nation based in our back yard. Here, yesterday and today are a living link, and the outdoors adventure life is the world's greatest!

Throw in a passion for journalism, and this place rocks! (Pardon the outdoors pun.)

We've won several national awards and fellowships, including from Columbia University where we were asked to speak in New York in 2008 about our investigative and diversity coverage. Ditto in Chicago, Boston and in various other large forums. Our staff eagerly applies for and earns fellowships for advanced training. We also won an Inland Press national award in 2008 for a profile story of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, reported in Venezuela, after talking with him about connections between his oil fields and ours here in the Four Corners. Our editor won the 2009 Robert G. McGruder Award, the nation's highest newspaper honor for diversity leadership and combating racism.

We've contracted with a former CIA/FBI agent to work with us on special investigative pieces by teaming with our best reporters.

We're a small, cozy newsroom, that likes to think big.

No, we don't have a dime to spend. We're just creative in finding one. That's why we're patient in our hiring and hunt ambitious, talented and opportunity-seeking journalists.

Wimps need not apply. We go after racial bigots and closed-minded governments, and the battle often gets fierce. The rewards, however, are tremendous. Keep reading...

Imagine life right in the middle of a western novel: The magnificent Rocky Mountains within view and only an hour to the north. The colorful Navajo Nation only minutes to the west. High desert landscape with endless scenic views and spectacular sunsets right here in town. And, at an altitude higher than the mile-high city of Denver, the weather here is great, with sunshine year-round, cool summer breezes, dry temps and fairly mild winters.

Add to that: the annual Connie Mack World Series for baseball nuts wanting to see the nation's best pro and college prospects; the national high school rodeo championships; colorful American Indian festivals; hot air balloon festivals; some of the best fly fishing in the world; a ski resort an hour away; one of the most modern public libraries in the nation; an awesome indoor aquatic center that has hosted Olympic prelims; the recently ranked No. 1 public golf course in the U.S.; great whitewater rafting and...well...you get the picture.

Farmington, spurred by active oil-and-gas industry, is the commerce center for the Four Corners region, tucked in the northwest corner of New Mexico and only an hour south of the Colorado resorts in Durango. We also serve readers in Arizona and Utah, making us the chief media source for the entire Four Corners region. Furthermore, we know good journalism, we have exciting goals and we aim to become one of the best community newspapers in the nation. We preach local first, and we're darn serious about our goals for quality journalism across the board. That is one reason we will continue our search until we find the right candidates.

We work hard; we play hard. We have many expectations, and we are placing the bar high. Want to join us?

Please send asap a cover letter, resume and clips to: Troy Turner, editor, The Daily Times, P.O. Box 450, Farmington, N.M. 87499; or to tturner@daily-times.com. We prefer applications by e-mail.

 

So...it's like $30,000 if you like outdoor adventure?

 

Troy seems like a nice guy, but needs to get himself organized. I wonder if he is a Hugo Chavez fan, though, as his bio on the website has a picture of him greeting Chavez.

I assume the new SE is the recent sports hire.

 

I believe that's right. There was a job post back around June in search of a Sports Ed. at this paper.

 

Farmington sounds more and more like the Roswell AAA affiliate.

 

I don't know why but every time I read this ad, it has a stench of desperation. It's trying too hard to sell the locale. And I'm a recent graduate looking for a gig.

 

A couple of buddies and I spent a few days in Farmington on vacation one summer when I was in college, and I can see it being a hard sell. It's in an awfully remote location, the climate is pretty harsh and I got a feeling that there's a fair amount of racial tension there.

That said, it's a decent-sized town (maybe 25-30,000) with a daily that is the voice for a pretty large area, so there are going to be stories to cover. I'm thinking you could do a lot worse for a first job out of college.

 

I'm not knocking the gig. Any gig that I think I'm qualified for, I'm applying. With this one, though, I keep pausing because if you are trying this hard to sell yourself, I smell something wrong...

 

As far as gigs go, Farmington and the surrounding area has strong selling points, primarily in that it's a particularly strong sports spot. The local high schools are generally highly competitive in every sport. Several D-I FB prospects have come out of the area. In the past they've at least traveled to Abq. for state tourneys. Don't know if that's going to continue but I suspect so.
You can't eat the nearby scenery or pay bills with it but you can certainly enjoy it on the days off. Killer skiing in winter, amazing hiking/backpacking in the summer. Fly fishing. You could certainly do worse as a place to pad the clip file for awhile.

 

Who has left recently?

 

Lost both the SE and sports writer back in mid-May - hired a new sports writer just a week before the SE left. Looks like they've been making do with just the one sports writer and contributions from some sports/news hybrids ever since. I know quite a bit about this one so feel free to ask me any questions you might have, and I'll be as honest as I can about it.