Sports Writer, Huntsville Item

http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=928287

The Huntsville Item, a seven-day a week morning newspaper north of Houston on I-45, is looking for an individual who can cover sports and help on newsside. Huntsville is a growing community of 36,000 that includes a Division I-AA university and headquarters of the Texas prison system. Photography and pagination (Quark) skills are a plus. Please submit a resume, references, three writing clips to Jay Ermis, managing editor, at jermis@itemonline.com, or by mail to P.O. Box 539, Huntsville, Texas 77342-0539

Anyone know anything about this one?

 

A CNHI paper, if memory serves.

 

with the impending death of jrc, is cnhi now the shittiest chain in america?

 

Doesn't help their cause that they advertise the paper's location being in the same vicinity as the Texas Prison System...That's going to attract a lot of people :

 

One can only imagine the types of unsavory characters that traverse through the headquarters of the Texas clink. there's a lot of debauchery in the many out-of-the-way corners of the Lone Star State.

 

My family is from Huntsville, it's not too bad if you're into thick woods and a nice state park near by. I looked up the circulation and at 5,500 it's pretty small for a paper covering a university with some decent athletics. I can't speak for Southland Conference football but I know they have good basketball and baseball.

 

What if you have family there?

 

I know a bit about this place and this paper, though not great details (never worked there or anything). On their Site, they claim a circulation of 7k and 8k on weekends. They are about 20-25 minutes from Conroe on I-45 and most consider Conroe the edge of the Houston metro sprawl. Going south on I-45, you'll run into Conroe, then the Woodlands (about a half hour away and where I stay if I cover an event in Huntsville), then Spring (about 40 minutes away), then Houston city limits (about an hour away).

To your north, there is a lot of nothing until Dallas, some three hours away.

It is true that Huntsville is a prison town. It's also the execution capital of America. So you'll have the national media descend on the town from time to time. When your lights dim for a second, you know what just happened...

Tom Waddill, the SE, is a good guy as is Cody Stark, their ASE and lead guy on their Sam Houston State beat. They maintain a strong presence covering their team. They generally go on the road, go to conference events (like football's media day) and they try to be detailed with their coverage.

I bent Tom's ear about it. Being the size paper they are, there will be some prep reporting, some desk work, probably some Sam Houston State stuff and even some news and photography stuff (I did mention it's a 7k circulation, right?). I will recommend this job to some entry level guys I know looking for a place where they can get good clips, because, with a D-I beat in town in a small-circulation paper, you'll have chances to do some things.

And it is a CNHI, and apparently that's a legitimate caveat (never actually deal with that chain myself). But still, I say if you are in clip building mode, there are much worse places to start.

Tom's also an easy person to talk to, so there will be nothing intimidating about the process.

 

Paxton would be up there, too.


As far as Huntsville, Texas state executions are held there and I believe the Item has a reporter at every one.

 

well thank you. i do try to put people at ease.

 

You do have Sam Houston State there. The Item has done a good job with sports for awhile, better than many papers of its size. Met one of their former ME's and would have enjoyed the chance to work with him.

If I lived closer to there (I'm in Houston) I'd give this some consideration...can't move to Huntsville right now though.

 

Nah, Paxton's got that aggressively-psychotic thing going, although not as bad as JRC.

CNHI is just aggressively cheap, a result of being leveraged out to the toe-seams in their socks.