Cover the Minnesota Vikings while the ink is still drying on your diploma

From jj.com
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1526241

Company: Star Tribune
Position:
Cover the Minnesota Vikings while the ink is
still drying on your diploma
Location:
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Job Status: Not Specified
Salary: $35,000 to $40,000
Ad Expires:
October 9, 2013
Job ID: 1526241
Website: http://www.startribunecompany.com/jobs

Description:

MINNESOTA VIKINGS DIGITAL REPORTER (APPRENTICE)

This reporter will be responsible for helping enhance the Star Tribune’s Vikings presence online.
This reporter will be expected to blog, conducts chats with readers, produce player interviews on
the iPhone, participate in Access Vikings and StribCast Videos, help aggregate content related to
the Vikings and creatively suggest ideas that keep our readers engaged with our Vikings content.
While this position has a heavy digital focus, this reporter will also produce sidebars, features and
notebooks for print.

This position is covered under our contract with the Newspaper Guild and pays $36,730 to $42,749 based on experience.

Qualifications
While this is a two-year position, successful candidates must exhibit the potential to develop into a
regular staff member because that is a possibility. Some experience covering major college sports
or professional sports is helpful. Ability to quickly assess news and work in a timely manner to
present content is critical.

Please note: Our apprentice program is primarily geared toward developing journalists with diverse backgrounds and experiences who are in the beginning stages of their journalism career.

ACTION: If interested, please apply by clicking the link below and providing a resume, clips and a letter explaining why you are the right person for the job by Friday, Sept.13. Questions? Email Glen Crevier, assistant managing editor for sports at glen.crevier@startribune.com

Additional Information
How to apply online

You must fill out our online application here: www.startribunecompany.com/jobs
You can upload your cover letter, resume and clips using our online tool, which accepts a number of file formats (PDF, JPEG, FIG, DOC, DOCX, TXT and BMP).
Our system will let you upload up to six files in addition to your cover letter and resume.
If you have more than six files to submit beyond your resume and cover letter, you should combine some of them.
None of your files can be larger than 2 MB.
You can complete your online application in stages by selecting the link marked “Continue later” at the bottom of each page. That will prompt the system to email you a case-sensitive username and password that you can use to sign in and finish at a later time.
We won’t see your application until you click submit. Once you take that step, you won’t be able to alter your application or attach additional documents to it.
If you apply online, your references can email letters of recommendation to newsrecruiter@startribune.com with your name in the subject line, or snail mail them to Duchesne Drew (address below). Please ask your references to write your name on the envelope.
The online application tool we use, SmartRecruiters, is optimized to work with Mozilla Firefox. Other browsers may not give you full functionality.

EOE

 

I'm sorry, but that salary is insulting.

 

Agreed -- for someone right out of school or early in their career, $39,000 isn't bad.

 

It's print journalism; everybody's salary is insulting.

But as Versatile and boundforboston both said, that's actually pretty damn good for somebody right out of college.

 

Being early in my career (graduated in April), I would be very content with this. Happy, even.

 

It's not only fair, it's insulting for those of us who had almost no access to these kinds of jobs right out of college a generation ago.

Now, a lot of kids are getting these positions. I knew somebody who interned covering an SEC beat as a No. 2 at a mid-size metro. After the internship, the intern took a crappy job for the same paper for about a year, and now has an NFL beat.

For young journalists, the opportunities for fast advancement far exceed what they were for my generation, I think. They are coming out of school with skills some older guys lack, they can fill roles for cheap and mature into those roles relatively quickly.

I know another guy who is under 25 and his experience has been with a major network and an NFL team. Whatever happened to starting out covering shitty prep games?

Edit: Feel the need to clarify something. I mentioned above that the intern did a "crappy job." The intern was very good at the job. What I meant was after the internship was over, said intern accepted a relatively crappy job with the same paper, in terms of it being GA with a lot of preps and random community sports stuff. Just in case said intern is reading this and knows who I am. If you are, I hold you in high regards, don't worry.

Still jealous you got to do an SEC beat as an intern though.

 

Preach on, brother. Young 'n cheap is the way to go these days for the big boys.

 

this is the unfortunate reality these days. experience and writing/reporting ability are not valued. the notion that anyone off the street can be a sportswriter has always been out there. news outlets have given increasing credibility to that belief with their priorities and plan regarding news coverage.

 

Some papers are hiring young guys on the cheap, but some papers are looking for experienced reporters for their major beats. Don't paint with a broad brush.

 

I don't mean to paint a broad brush. There are still a lot of great jobs out there. And in some cases, the younger folks are being asked to do jobs that did not exist 10-15 years ago (this being an example).

Considering that people with those skills and mindsets tend to be younger, the market tells you they'll be available for relatively cheap. 36-42k is a great starting salary for somebody. Your alternative is to hire somebody older and more experienced for much more who likely has not embraced the things you want him to do and probably isn't as good at them as the kid you can hire for cheap.

If you were still hiring a traditional journalist for the spot, then you likely would have to pay >$50k and you'd be picking among people with experience at least on a major college beat. But, we're in a transitional stage of the business and skillsets needed have changed. These kids are learning this stuff in J-school now and come out more qualified for some of these jobs than some of the older folks.

I would have LOVED to have made the equivalent of that salary at 24 (early 1990s). I would guess it would have been low-upper 30s back then. I would have been quite happy.

If I recall, I was happy that my per-hour pay rate was in double digits at the time. And I was getting to do some mid-major D-I coverage to go with the preps.

 

About three weeks ago, the Star Tribune posted a job for its Vikings beat. Is that still going or did they decide to downgrade the hire for cost reasons?

 

Might also be a promotion, then replace the promoted sort of deal.