Broncos & Rockies Sports Columnist

Company: The Gazette
Position:
Bronos & Rockies Sports Columnist
Location:
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Job Status: Full-time
Salary: Not Specified
Ad Expires:
October 3, 2012
Job ID: 1423559

Description:

BRONCOS & ROCKIES SPORTS COLUMNIST

The Broncos & Rockies Sports Columnist is a new position responsible for covering the Denver Broncos and Colorado Rockies including games, camps and developments. The position calls for a minimum of four columns a week. Requires a minimum of three years previous reporter experience. Previous columnist experience is a plus. Please send your resume, cover letter and writing samples to humanresources@gazette.com. Please enter job code in the subject line. Experienced candidates located in the Denver Metro area or Colorado Springs are preferred. No relocation assistance will be provided for this position. No phone calls please. Job Code: BRCJJC

 

I know Frank Schwab just left to go to Yahoo! Did someone else leave too?

 

I'm curious what people think about the job descriptions?
You're a columnist, but you only write about two teams?
A beat columnist?
Doesn't that kind of kill the point of being a columnist?
I know some people only write about the biggest stuff, but I've never liked that?

If you don't also sometimes bring the great story nobody knows anything about, I don't think you're doing your job.

 

This is what has been called at other shops the "downtown" columnist. It likely will be a Denver-based position, and the two biggest teams there for Springs readers are the Broncos (by a mile) and the Rockies (whose AAA team is in the Springs).

 

Doesn't mean you would NEVER write about anything else happening. But those two would sort of give you a starting point.

 

What about the Nuggets and Avalanche?

 

I think they stopped having a Broncos beat writer a couple years ago. I think they staffed home games, but I don't think they were sending anyone on the road. Schwab was the last Broncos writer they had and he did a great job. They moved him to Air Force a couple years ago and while it can be argued that AFA is the top beat at that paper, I don't think it was a move he was thrilled to make.

This would be an interesting gig if they have to cover Rockies and Broncos. I'm assuming travel would be pretty limited, but that's still a pretty long year, since February and March would be the only downtime, and that's not counting spring training and NFL free agency... I'm assuming this is primarily game coverage.

It's a very good paper. This is a very good gig.

 

Mile High,

What are the three other positions besides this one that the Gazette is hiring for?

 

Psych,

Don't understand your question. The position mentioned here is a staff position, not freelance. So you're not getting paid by the story, per se. While they say they want you to do four columns per week, in a real busy time of year it might be more than that. And, yeah, you might actually break news as well. So you and the paper would agree to either a salary or an hourly wage.

I've never had a precise word count on a column I've written (or edited/paginated), but I'm guessing most of the ones I've done were in the 18-25 inch range. I'd be surprised if they gave you a word count unless space was super tight.

Not sure what size staff CS has anymore, but I can see the reasoning where you can get more mileage from a columnist --- especially one who can do an occasional straight news piece --- than a beat person. You can get all sorts of game stories and player profiles from the wire anyway. Having a separate person do that seems like a waste of resources in this day and age. I applaud them for even having a position like this, as it seems more and more places have eliminate out-of-town positions for pro or college teams to go hyper-local.

 

A job like this is almost definitely salaried. I'd guess it would be between $50-$60K, but that's just a guess.