They're baaaaaaaack...still bootstrappin'

Company: Berkshire Beacon
Position:
Editorial & Sales
Location:
Lenox, Massachusetts
Job Status: Full-time
Salary: Negotiable
Ad Expires:
November 18, 2011
Job ID: 1217642

Description:


Bootstrap Journalism #101: You want to write, edit and design the pages of The Berkshire Beacon. This will give you invaluable experience going forward in your career.
I want to create an advertising base with your creative ingenuity, sales ability and put the newspaper on a solid financial platform to reward your ability going forward and to help Main Street merchants to once again sell their products.
Together, we can become part of the Beacon’s (http://www.berkshirebeacon.com/ ) goal to grow together in this economy. Not only will you be selling space in the weekly, promoting add-on-values, but also you will be contributing to the summer tab-The Berkshire Sonata-both in advertisements and editorial copy.
No sea shells, no life at the beach; just the opportunity to put one's creativity and multitask efforts--including sales, marketing, writing, design, photography and self-enterprising initiatives--on the pages of The Berkshire Beacon and its web site www.berkshirebeacon.com
You will be paid a commission on sales; along with an editorial stipend plus expenses as part of a cohesive small newspaper family whose goal: To become the Best New England Weekly as voted by the New England Newspaper & Press Association (NENPA). http://www.nenpa.com/
This is Bootstrap Journalism #101 at its best. See Small Newspapers: http://www.asne.org/kiosk/reports/97reports/smallnewspapers/contents.html
It doesn't get any better than to see the formation of a dedicated staff dressed for success to share in The Berkshire Hills experience. See www.lenox.org
Our goal is to produce a community TAB from our own resources that will be recognized and respected each week by our readers & advertisers.
When you are ready to move on, your sales/editorial portfolio will help you secure your journalistic dream job along with a letter of recommendation from The Beacon's publisher/editor.
We are the "Heart" of The Berkshires and thus the goal of our newspaper is: “Berkshire Hometown News First.”
If you're up for the challenge and can't wait to see your byline in print, e-mail your resume with subject marked BEACON to: george@berkshirebeacon.com or call 413-637-2250. -George C. Jordan III, ED & PUB

 

Can you promise puff pieces to get clients? Would that be crossing a line here?

 

They have a combined editorial/sales spot and you ask if ANYTHING crosses the line?

 

If any aspiring bootstrappers would like a copy of this paper, please let me know. I can grab a few free copies at the grocery store.

 

Have they grown yet in this economy?

 

It doesn't get any better than to see the formation of a dedicated staff dressed for success to share in The Berkshire Hills experience. See www.lenox.org


Awesome. Now they have a picture of their staff, which hasn't seen a pay raise since the Charlie Dickens era.

 

Does he really cite a 1997 report on how great things are at small newspapers as evidence that small newspapers are a great place to work in 2011?

 

If you can promise me a view of the Berkshires seeming dreamlike on account of their frosting, I'm there.

 

What you get: "Invaluable experience."
What you do not get: Valuable money.

 

Back a few months ago, had a Skype interview with the guy who runs this "sheet" (It wasn't long after graduating from college when I was looking for a job simply as fast as I could). Maybe one of the weirder experiences that I've ever had. Complete low-ball pay for pretty much running the sports section. Maybe I could have made more stitching soccer balls for Nike. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. How was that Skype interview one of the weirder experiences? Guy was straight up wearing a fur coat while indoors doing an interview over the internet. And yes, it was a fur coat with a hood.

Needless to say, I wasn't an ideal bootstrap journalist.

 

Now I kind of want to apply, just for fun and games.