Seeking talented sports writer in Greenwood, SC

It happened again. After two years, a sports writer is moving on. It's all good and all for the right reasons. Life brings about changes. Getting your sports career started at the IJ can be a good change too:


Are you ready to launch your sports writing career? Looking for a daily newspaper that places a premium on good work, strong work ethic and talent?

The Greenwood (S.C.) Index-Journal, a small community daily, is looking for a talented, energetic and aggressive sports writer to join its award-winning team.

We’re no second-rate publication. We take pride in our work, and it shows in the number of S.C. Press Association awards we have received through the years. And that includes numerous awards for sports feature and news writing. We cover a dozen schools — public and private — and have two colleges we regularly cover, Lander University and Erskine College. Sure, football is king just as it is anywhere in the South, but we don’t ignore the other sports, and there’s plenty to be covered. And plenty of talent out there to supply a good flow of feature material.

We’re a family-owned newspaper, which means we don’t have the layers of corporate executives to wade through. While other newspapers are struggling to stay in business and some even furloughed sports staff during the pandemic, we recognize that solid local content is what brings readers back to our newspaper and website.

We want to challenge the regular parameters attached to small papers. We believe the best way for a newspaper to succeed in this economic climate is to put out the best product possible.

The ideal candidate must understand local sports matter and be able to convey that through stories and photos. He or she must also understand the importance of digital-first journalism, using social media and video to tell their stories. The ideal candidate must be aggressive, creative and thorough. Key ingredients are pride in work and a passion for journalism. And while thinking digital first is important, you might find it good to know that we have our own press and set our own schedules. What does that mean? It means that those Friday night football games are not only going online, they’re going in the next morning’s print edition too. Because we still recognize the importance and value of print.

We’ve hired journalists from California to Florida. Our hires have had degrees from Missouri, Florida, Wisconsin, Colorado, Ohio, Northwestern (master’s degree) and Georgia (master’s degree).

If you think this sounds like a good fit for you, and you have the desire to help us continue our award-winning, public-serving publication, let us hear from you.

If interested, send a cover letter, résumé, at least five clips and references (via regular mail or email) to:


Richard Whiting
Executive Editor
P.O. Box 1018

 

Southeast of Due West and due west of Ninety Six. Plus, Promised Land is just a few miles down the road.

Seriously, you could do way worse than starting your career with Richard at the I-J. You'll learn a ton and might even become a regular at the Amish Oven.

 

Also, some really high quality high school baseball in this area. Could stay busy practically year-round just from that.

 

I worked at this spot for three years and I highly recommend it.

Richard is an excellent boss and a passionate local editor. The IJ does things the right way and will always support your hard work. There are a lot of opportunities to get good clips and cover good teams here. I worked at the IJ during the pandemic and while many at other papers were being laid off or strung along without pay, the IJ took care of its employees first and foremost.