Sports reporter - Bozeman Daily Chronicle

Company: Big Sky Publishing
Position: Sports Reporter
Location: Bozeman, Montana
Job Status: Full-time
Salary: $20,000 to $25,000

Description: The award-winning Bozeman Daily Chronicle has an immediate opening for a talented, versatile and ambitious sports reporter to join a department of three in Montana’s vibrant and beautiful Gallatin Valley.
The ideal candidate will demonstrate an ability to chase down stories that go well beyond box scores and be willing to cover everything from the outdoors — we are a short drive from some of the nation's best skiing and fishing as well as Yellowstone National Park — and area high schools to Montana State University.
Preference will be given to those who are well versed in social media and other digital journalism tools, are deadline-driven and detail-oriented, have editing experience and knowledge of Adobe InDesign.
If working in a fast-paced environment with a talented staff — the Chronicle recently was named the state's top daily and the top newspaper in the Northwest with a circulation of less than 25,000 — sounds enticing, please send a resume, cover letter, references and five published writing samples to Sports Editor Jon Maletz at jmaletz@dailychronicle.com. Deadline for applications is Oct. 6.

http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1610874

PM for details. This is my current shop.

 

Can't beat the scenery, plus Montana State is pretty solid and the preps scene is far better than one might imagine it being. Montana football is outstanding.

BUT, that pay is ridiculously low. It deserves a "C'mon man!"

 

That was my first thought: $20,000?? Are you kidding?

Even $25,000 is cutting it tight. But $20k is only $384.61 a week.

There isn't anybody with an education or journalism degree or worth their own salt that is going to work full-time for what essentially equals $9.60 an hour. I don't think I could look someone in the eye and offer them that without crawling under my desk in shame immediately after I got the words out.

 

But let's make sure fast food workers get $15/hour.

 

Doc, that is assuming it is 40 hours a week. But with the amount of coverage I am guessing it equates to more like$8.50 an hour. I don't think I have ever seen a paper that covers a D-I school (in hoops) offer 20k. That is insane.

 

If this position is hourly, and you factored in 10 hours overtime at what normally would be $14.40 an hour ($9.60 + $4.80), you would make roughly $529 a week.

However, if this position is salaried at $20k and you average 50-hour work weeks (10 of them being time-and-a-half for overtime) you'd make about $7 an hour.

Your first 40 hours would net you $280 and your next 10 hours at time-and-half ($7 + $3.50) would equal $105 for $385 a week. Do it for 52 weeks and you've got your $20k.

That's ridiculous.

 

Luckily it is relatively expensive to live there, so you won't have to fret about how to spend all your leftover cash!

 

I know smaller papers where 25 is not a bad starting salary, as long as you don't hang around long. Get your clips and get out. I've known a couple of folks who've worked here (not in sports), neither were offered anything close to 20k.

Ranks in my top five most beautiful places I've seen in person. (Also, there are some rich sumbitches in Bozeman.)

 

I bet it is beautiful country and relatively cheap living expenses, too.

 

Worth noting this is one of the few non-Lee papers in the state.

 

If it's salaried, unless there are some sort of loophole, then it sounds like it would be a labor violation. For one thing, a salaried job must pay something like $23K a year. Second, there must be some sort of supervisory duties.

 

This is a very important point.

That being said, the Missoulan is still a nice-looking paper, despite Lee Enterprises' best efforts.