Sports Writer/Page Designer- Lawrenceville, GA

From jjobs.com
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1585773

Company: Gwinnett Daily Post
Position:
Seeking sports writer/page designer
Location:
Lawrenceville, Georgia
Job Status: Full-time
Salary: Negotiable
Job ID: 1585773

Description:

SPORTS WRITER/PAGE DESIGNER The Gwinnett Daily Post, a Southern Community Newspapers Inc. property, is seeking a skilled sports writer and page designer.

The position will feature three days per week of writing and two days per week of page design/copy editing duty. We're looking for a savvy page designer who is prepared to lay out pages on a tight deadline, but also who is just as talented and efficient as a writer.

The Daily Post covers Gwinnett area preps, the new Georgia Gwinnett College athletic programs, the Gwinnett Braves AAA minor league baseball team and the Gwinnett Gladiators ECHL hockey team on a regular basis. There are also opportunities to cover national, regional and local events in Atlanta, as well as UGA events in Athens.

We used the InDesign and NewsEngin systems on Mac computers, so knowledge of those programs and platforms is a plus.

Recent/imminent college graduates with experience via internship or school paper will be considered.

Apply online or send your resumé and work samples to:

Will Hammock, Sports Editor

Gwinnett Daily Post

P.O. Box 603

Lawrenceville, GA 30046

Email: will.hammock@gwinnettdailypost.com. NO PHONE CALLS.

 

Any info about this shop? Or a potential salary range? I'm a huge fan of the area.

 

Seeing as they specifically welcome college graduates, I'd guess probably mid-20s at best.

 

Their online presence is very strong for preps, as it should be given the strength of the preps in that county. The last four football state champs in the highest classification have come from Gwinnett, which also has the best program in the state in Buford. There's also just a ton of schools there, to the point that two of the eight regions in that highest classification are primarily Gwinnett. The first week of the state playoffs is just like another football week.

That being said ...

I was there over Christmas and noticed that the Sunday edition my parents got at their house IN LAWRENCEVILLE the day after the 6-A title game between two Gwinnett County schools had gone to press before the end of the game. And as it was played on a Saturday night and the Post now doesn't publish on Mondays or Tuesdays ...

 

I worked at the GDP for eight years and left in March. Here's my take on the place/job.

THE GOOD: You won't find a better boss in the business than Will Hammock. He's a top-notch guy. Knows how to treat people, very well-respected among the local coaches and other sports writers and is very organized. His boss, Todd Cline, is also a standup guy, so you're working for good people.
In terms of covering prep sports in Georgia, maybe the Southeast, there's not a better place. Gwinnett produces the state's top teams in just about every sport and hundreds of college athletes. Several big name players have come from the county in all the major sports. There's 22 high schools, so there's plenty to keep you busy. High school football is the bread-and-butter of the sports section. The GDP also covers all the big boy events like The Masters, SEC championship, Chick-fil-A Bowl, Atlanta Falcons, etc. There's two minor league teams in Gwinnett — Gwinnett Braves and Gwinnett Gladiators (hockey team).
THE BAD: Just typical newspaper stuff like having to work nights and weekends.
THE UGLY: You will never get a raise. NEVER. Your starting salary will be your ending salary and that's sad. The company hasn't given raises in the last five or six years. You'll be lucky if you make more than $30K a year. There's also no room for advancement in the company. So you can work hard for years and never get any kind of bonus or promotion, just an e-mail that says 'Good Job.' The company mileage rate is 27 cents a mile, which has not changed in 15 years.
IDEAL CANDIDATE: If you have a sugar mamma or a rich uncle that can help pay your bills, this is an ideal job for you. Otherwise you're going to need a second job to supplement your newspaper job. If you have any hopes of starting a family one day, this is not the job for you.
ETC: You need to know how to use social media and post stories to a web site, deadline is 11:15 p.m., the paper used to be six days a week and then dropped to five two years ago and moved to four in February, you get a laptop and can work from home to write stories.

Best of luck. Let me know if you need any additional info.

 

Not trying to argue, but:

Is having a "good boss" supposed to offset all that other crap?

Also, aside from some stale clips, how does covering all those events and schools matter if you can't get the stuff into a print edition in a timely fashion?

 

Pretty typical for a lot of newspapers in this day and age. Online has become all the rage, whatever pros and cons come with that. None of us were ever getting rich in sports media to begin with, so whining about that is a waste of time.

It's not really a career, per se. It's a job for people who are young and single OR have a spouse that works and provides a second income. It's a job for people who like covering sports, being around games and athletes and coaches, because that's always been the single biggest upside of the job. (I may not be able to afford anything more than an efficiency apartment or eat anywhere but McDonald's, but at least I get to go to the game and sit in the press box.)

 

I actually hadn't noticed that they don't print on Saturdays any more either. Wonder what the plan is for HS football coverage.

I find it vaguely amusing that despite being called the Gwinnett Daily Post, they've never to my knowledge actually been a daily paper, having only ever printed six days a week.

 

Most of that is typical of a small newspaper. I'll say this on the issue of advancement. Todd moved up to where he is, as did Will. Flip side is both of them are still relatively young and don't appear to be going anywhere. So yeah, upward mobility is severely limited, but again that's not unusual with small papers.

 

Been a long time since I've been in Todd or Will's company but both were/are good guys. Doesn't pay the bills but I have left jobs I thought i would never leave because all I could think about every day was dragging my boss into the parking lot and commencing to whip some ass.

 

Any updates on this one?

 

Have any decisions been made for this one yet?