Sports writer/designer opening in Danville, Va.

Position: Sports writer/copy editor/page designer
Property: Danville Register & Bee
Job Status: Full-time
Salary: $20,000 to $25,000 (edit: likely closer to the higher end)
Location: Danville, Virginia


Are you well-rounded? We might have the perfect job for you. The Register & Bee is looking for candidates who can demonstrate a high energy level and good organizational skills in order to juggle page design and daily and longer-term writing projects.

We are a Media General newspaper located in south central Virginia, on the border of North Carolina. The area is central to Greensboro, N.C., Raleigh, N.C., Roanoke, Va., and Richmond, Va. The Danville Register & Bee is a daily newspaper with an average daily circulation of 21,500 and 24,000 on Sundays.

The person who joins our team will have the opportunity to display and further develop their writing and page design skills. We primarily cover five high schools that regularly compete for state football, basketball and baseball titles; three auto racing tracks that host NASCAR and road racing events; college football, basketball and baseball at a Division 3 university; a minor league baseball team; and some Atlantic Coast Conference football and basketball games and the ACC basketball tournament.

The person will share page design duties with the rest of the sports staff, which will likely consist of 1-2 nights each week of copy editing and page design, including section fronts, as well as beat coverage and general assignments, including events, breaking sports news and enterprise stories. The person will also be expected to help with our increasing multimedia efforts.

This job is more of an entry level position and perfect for recent graduates or journalists with several years of experience.

Mail cover letter, resume and writing and page design samples to Drew Wilson, sports editor, P.O. Box 331, Danville, VA 24543, or via e-mail at cwilson@registerbee.com.

 

Who's leaving? Jeff?

 

Yes, Jeff left to take a designer job in Newport News a few weeks ago. Obviously a tough loss for us but a great opportunity (and a well deserved one) for him. I had hoped to post this sooner, but it had to go through the red tape first.

 

i really hope you're starting the pay at the higher end of the scale listed.

 

You're absolutely fucking right. Because living in an area with a cheap-as-shit cost of living, getting to cover NASCAR, minor league baseball and ACC football and basketball, getting to work for a pretty cool boss and with a young, talented staff and working for a section that has sent many recent sports writers on to bigger and better is SOOOOOOO not worth getting paid in the low 20s, as opposed to mid-20s. Get real. :

Maybe you'd prefer if the position was just frozen, as is the situation at countless other shops?

There are some hungry young writers with serious talent that are going to apply for this one. And I would suggest jumping on that shit, quick!

 

Even hungry, young writers deserve to be paid a reasonable wage, esp. when a college degree is expected. So yes, it should be higher than low 20s.

 

We all should probably be making more money. I'm certainly not going to argue against that. But more often than not, working on the cheap is the reality in this business, especially starting out and especially at a paper this size.

Bottom line is, this is a TREMENDOUS opportunity. And 20k in Danville, Va. goes A LOT farther than it does in many other places.

 

Big fan of hyperbole, huh? No offense to Drew, but what makes the Register & Bee any different from the other mid-level MG papers? I know Drew is a good guy, but this is still a 95 percent preps gig.

Is it a solid paper? Yes. Is Drew a good boss? Yes, from everything I've heard. But it's not without its negatives, too; especially the pay, and the fact that MG sucks as a corporate entity when it comes to its lower- to mid-level papers.

EDIT: Sorry if it seems like I'm pissing in Danville's Corn Flakes. Just pointing out both sides of the coin.

 

Got to agree with TP and Doc about the pay. The idea that 20K goes a long way anywhere is absurb.

 

Wow...you sound like you could be on the management fast track.

Why not offer $16k pay?? I'm sure there are a lot of young "hungry" writers who would be willing to work for that, too. And if they're not hungry now, they will be soon.

 

I can speak from a position of authority that a Danville job will be less than "95 percent preps". They get to a lot more ACC stuff than you'd expect for a paper that size (maybe not as much as they used to, but they've also greatly improved their preps coverage, which once was little more than football/basketball/baseball/softball).

I can also say that almost everyone who left Danville did so for a better opportunity. Off the top of my head, former R&B sports people have gone to Newport News, Durham, Greensboro (I know some news people have landed there)and do Virginia and Va. Tech at Lynchburg. A former sports guy from well back is at the Virginian-Pilot. One's an SE at Virginia, and another landed at an alt-daily in Norfolk. News folk have gone to Fredericksburg as well.

I'm a bit biased, but I can recommend this one for a first job without reservation. Too bad the pay couldn't be better, but ... say it with me ... Media General. Definitely agree about MG's attitude towards the non-holy trinity (and Winston-Salem I'm including loosely). But my guess is Danville and Charlottesville pay about the same, and I know in which town your pittance will go further (farther?).

 

Further.