Sports Editor-Richmond County (NC) Daily Journal

The Richmond County Daily Journal, a small newspaper that thinks big, is looking for its next sports editor. High school sports are our bread and butter, but the position also includes coverage of motorsports at the Rockingham Dragway and Rockingham Speedway and the occasional chance to take in a Carolina Panthers game. We're looking for a talented writer who thrives on deadline and thinks beyond the game story to develop robust features and enterprise pieces. Photography experience preferred. The successful candidate will serve as our sole sports staffer but will cultivate and manage stringers, including a Panthers photographer. He or she must be able to juggle local coverage along with planning the daily sports section and pulling wire copy. Our pages are designed at a regional hub, so good teamwork and communication skills are essential. We cover home and away games; candidates should be as comfortable with trasmitting stories from press boxes and parking lots as with writing in the office. If you think this opportunity is for you, send a cover letter, resume and 3-5 clips to Corey Friedman at cfriedman@civitasmedia.com. No phone calls, please.

 

Anyone know the pay range on this one?

 

I worked for this paper (as editor) in 2013-14. I don't speak for it or the parent company, Civitas Media (formerly Heartland Publications), in any official capacity. My guess is pay range is between $25 - 30K.

You'd cover one high school (Richmond Senior HS) which has a traditional of winning football. I think there's plenty of room to cover more varsity sports and community sports than the previous SE did. People do read more than football. The incumbent also covered middle school championship contests in football, volleyball and basketball.

The RCDJ is a five-day daily, publishing Tuesday through Saturday. Your pages are designed in Lumberton, N.C., or Dayton, Ohio, at a central hub. You communicate through a messaging system with your designer of the day to determine what you want. Anyone familiar with design hubs and the random assignment of designers to papers know that some are better than others.

The current/soon-to-be-previous SE also had the title of managing editor and worked under the direction of the editor in handling general assignments.

As for Panthers coverage - rare, in my short time there. Coverage at the Dragway is rare, too, and nothing has been at the Speedway in years. After I left, the RCDJ reported rumors that something could be coming to the Speedway but ... I think it's far from a certainty.

 

The Speedway was the part that jumped out at me. I knew it had been closed for a while now, so I was wondering why they would include "coverage" of anything at the track in their job posting.

 

Maybe the executive editor doesn't read his sports section.

 

The Super Cup Stock Car Series has a race scheduled there this year. We'll see if it actually happens.

Super Cup Stock Car Series

 

I can vouch for Corey. He's a young, but old-school kind of journalist. Loves digging into things and getting juicy stories. He's won a ton of awards since I hired him as a stringer while he was in high school when he was 17.

So if you're looking to get some experience with in-depth stories, as well as covering the beat of Richmond Senior High, jump at it. He'll give you the freedom to do what you want and make a small section yours...I know the news side has done a bunch of stories on the speedway since he got there, and they do have some stuff scheduled there. Whether it happens or not, no clue.

PM me if you'd like, I might be able to answer some ?s for you.