Sports page designer/reporter, Martinsville, Va.

How's the SE?

 

Depends on what you think of yourself.

 

Ha. Oh man.

 

Dime? You might want to lower your expectations to a few pennies, maybe a nickel, at this gig.

 

After reading through the past several threads about Martinsville, I expected to see your name appear on this thread. Looks like Johnny Buck is now the SE, but I know nothing about him. He was quite prompt in emailing me back, though.

 

Don't know Johnny Buck, but it seems as though he's stuck it out in Mville for quite some time. Must be one resilient motha.

 

I'd like to say; maybe he's turned that paper around a bit, but I'm not giving my hopes up.

 

I know many an editor who tried to the do the same thing and were either run out of there or threw up their own hands in disgust and called it a day. More power to JB if neither has happened to him....yet.

 

Other than the newspaper itself; how's the area? Poverty stricken or a nice place to live?

 

chief, SEs never turn a paper around ... ever. it's beyond the scope of the job description.

 

That is true. Learned that mistake a long time ago when I used to work for my "fearless" collegiate newspaper and an EIC who cried and ran into the advertising manager's office on a daily basis and cry out her misery.

 

Johnny's a good guy to work for. He's easy-going and a fun guy. And he does a pretty good job of shielding the writers from dealing with the management folk too much. This is actually his second tour as SE, and he looks to be there for a while, which should help with establishing some consistency in the department.
The pay isn't great, but it is dirt-cheap to live there. I took a pay cut when I moved there from my previous stop, but still ended up in the black.
I know this might seem like a 180 from my previous posts on this place, but most of those were in regard to the SE position. The SE position there is not desirable, but if Johnny is willing to jump on that grenade, then more power to him. And a writer here, working for Johnny, could do pretty well for him/herself.
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.