Ellensburg Daily Record sports writer.

I wasn't slamming the job at all. I was just pointing out that it is really windy there.
Also, you initially said folks that got laid off should look at this and I don't think people that were just laid off really want to move to a crappy little town in central Washington and get paid 20k. If it is a recent graduate, then by all means they should look at this.

 

I have thought that too, every job opening gets slammed. I'm sure you can find good and bad in every situation. The funniest ones for me are the job descriptions. "As the base of the Cascades with a great view of Mount St. Helens." Whoever took a job because of the view? Wow, on your lunch break you can go outside and look at a mountain.

 

take a trip to ellensburg and get back to me.

 

Tom usually comes on too strong for my taste, but he's right on this one. Ellensburg is like Pullman without the bustling nightlife, Division I sports and cultural options ... but it does have that smell. It's where Washington stops to pee. I will not rip the paper, because I can think of worse jobs. Just not many.

 

Been to Pullman several times, have cousins there. I was probably the only writer in the Pac-10 to enjoy the Wazoo trip ... but that was only because I got a homecooked meal when I was in town.

 

They moved the feed lots in Ellensburg about 10 years ago. It hardly smells anymore.

 

well jesus fucking christ, what do you mean too strong?

 

Sounds like another in a series of endless $23,000-a-year gigs to me.

 

Nobody's going to get rich working at a place like Ellensburg. That's why they call it an entry-level paper.

It's not the Seattle Times, but a former Ellensburg sportswriter does work at the Times. Another one recently left to take a job at a 30,000-plus circ APSE Top 10 paper in New York. And if, starting out, you want to learn something and work somewhere where the editor will do whatever he can to help get you the best "next" job you're capable of landing, then apply for this job. In the meantime you get to build bylines covering a guy Mike Reilly, CWU's qb, who will likely be an NFL draftpick, after breaking most of Jon Kitna's school passing records.

You could spend your whole career as a sportswriter and never cover a guy as good as Reilly. And it's not just one guy. The Wildcats were 10-3 last year and return most of their starters. The high school sports are also good; the top local girls player is the state's best at her position and is going D-I.

Ellensburg is windy, but it's also scenic. And if you're ambitious enough to give up the Xbox, you could actually climb a mountain, raft a fiver, go fly fishing, go snowboarding or be sitting in the press box at a Mariners game or Seahawks game in less than two hours after walking out your front door. Try that in BFE, Nebraska.

And the Ellensburg paper is growing, not downsizing. Papers all over the country are laying off -- and a lot of those getting laid off are the "new" hires.

But since everybody on this site already has a job covering the pros for a major metro or is a SportsCenter anchor, it's surprising this topic has so many posts.

 

look for my resume in the a.m.

 

I'd have mine in, too ... but I have the 9 p.m. SportsCenter to prep for.

The guy's right. He's a total whiner, but he's right. There are a lot of kids who could use this gig for bigger and better things, or to become a cautionary tale of journalistic Darwinism. It's one of those jobs that is what you make of it. I had one not at all dissimilar -- better town, probably equal paper -- and I did OK. Like I said, I've got to go work on my Bruce Pearl metaphors.

 

yeah, but he "talks" of good quarterbacks from the area and doesn't even mention the great tyler matthews. i have to question the cat's institutional knowledge.