stringing with a job

Hey everyone, I just got my first full-time non-college journalism gig, reporting news for a small town newspaper. I did sports during the last three years of college and became pretty respected at the university and in the community. The local newspaper in my college town, about 15 minutes from where I got the job has asked me to string for them a few times. They emailed me today asking me if I could cover the women's basketball team's opening game in the WBI Thursday night. I start this job on Wednesday. Just wondering if this would be a conflict of interest in any way, or if I will be able to cover the game and continue to work with them as long as it doesn't interfere with the other job. The papers are not in direct competition, as the paper I string for is a daily with more of a regional focus, whereas I work for a weekly that is really community based and doesn't touch the college.

Just looking for some input.

Thanks!

 

Direct competition is one thing, but is there any overlap in distribution area? In other words, is the daily paper the daily paper of record for the weekly paper's community? If so, that's probably going to be a problem.

Either way, you need to ask your supervisor just to make sure this idea would be OK. With the papers being so close in proximity, I'm betting it's not going to fly. But ask the people who give you a regular paycheck ... you can always explain that it's a special circumstance.

 

Many (if not most) newspaper employers want to know you work for freelance, part-time, whatever. Be up front with them and clear it in advance. Most places I worked, it was OK as long as it wasn't a competitor. In fact, some of my bosses steered freelance gigs to us from out-of-town papers because they knew we needed the dough (based on what they were paying us).

 

Well, not going to do it anyways now...it was contingent upon the high school team winning their super sectional game and heading to state, which didn't happen. They aren't for me stringing either, so that stinks!