Sports reporter, Dickinson, ND

from jj.com

Salary: $30,000 to $35,000
Website: http://www.thedickinsonpress.com

The Dickinson (N.D.) Press has an immediate opening for a Sports Reporter.

The Press is a six-day morning newspaper (no Monday edition) with a 7,200 print circulation and a growing Web base that serves the country’s third fastest-growing micropolitan area and the city livability.com recently named its No. 1 small town in America.

The ideal candidate will be a self-starter able to produce a strong balance of features, columns and enterprise stories alongside typical game recaps and previews, maintain a sports staff blog, develop a social media base and help institute any other new ideas he or she may have. Page design experience as the position requires page design on nearly a daily basis. Our sports reporters also take their own photographs with DSLR cameras and lenses provided by the newspaper.

The focus of our coverage is 13 high school teams in southwest North Dakota as well as Dickinson State University, a successful NAIA program. In the summer, The Press covers a highly competitive American Legion baseball club, professional and amateur rodeo, and the local dirt-track auto racing scene. The summer also brings opportunities to cover golf tournaments, recreational sports and an annual high school football all-star game between North Dakota and Montana.

The sports reporter's beat focuses on Dickinson State — we aim to cover the football team as if they were in the FCS or higher — while also helping the sports editor with a prep beat. The reporter also serves as the rodeo beat reporter in the summer, while contributing to a weekly Outdoors page and the production of a handful of special projects, including a fall high school football preview, a Dickinson State football preview and a high school basketball preview.

The Dickinson Press sports department swept the North Dakota Newspaper Association’s 2012 sports awards in its circulation category and has been the recipients of numerous awards for reporting, design and column writing in recent years.

This is an excellent position for someone looking to gain valuable experience at a daily newspaper. Many of our recent sports editors and sports reporters have moved on to larger newspapers or to higher positions within Forum Communications Co., which owns The Dickinson Press and several other newspapers in the upper Midwest.

Applicants must:

– Have a journalism degree, or similar, from a four-year college.

– Have one year of journalism experience at daily newspaper. Recent journalism school graduates with internship, daily newspaper or college newspaper experience are encouraged to apply.

– Be able to write, edit and produce a strong sports section under tight deadlines.

– Have the ability to design two to five pages daily on Quark Xpress.

– Have strong decision-making, communication and interpersonal skills.

– Be a motivated, self-starter who can produce award-winning ideas.

– Have a valid driver’s license and a driving record that is insurable by the company.

Please send a cover letter, resume and no more than five clips writing clips and samples of page design and sports photography to Managing Editor Dustin Monke at dmonke@thedickinsonpress.com no later than April 5.

 

April 5 ... 2014?

 

Now that's a thorough vetting period!

 

I'm sure he meant August. I had a discussion about this position, and from my limited exposure to Dustin, he seems like a first-class guy who would be good to work for. This paper does seem to care about its employees, but there is no getting around the fact that you're not close to anything.

If you're just starting out and can handle small-town life, this seems like a pretty solid place to begin.

 

After what happened with their recent sports editor, do you blame them?

 

Looks like they reposted the same ad as before.
http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/posts/3571490/

Hopefully they'll do a little better this time.

 

Didn't know Dickinson was part of Forum now. Forum Communications has a pretty good reputation as media companies go.

 

Who is the new SE?

 

Not sure. I had read somewhere that they were going to look for a replacement SE after the new one became a news story. Never saw a posting for it, though. My guess is that they promoted from within and will fill the resulting vacant reporter slot with a new hire.

 

They did promote within. Royal McGregor is the new sports editor.

 

See? I told you....

 

Hopefully the new SE can tone down the high school fanboi routine.

http://twitter.com/SirRoyal/status/354433237860352002