Sports writer, Lenoir, N.C.

The Lenoir News-Topic, an award-winning 10,000-circulation, six-day (Tuesday-Sunday) morning newspaper in North Carolina, is looking for a skilled and versatile sports writer. We cover three high schools extensively (even doing a weekly football preview tab) during the school year, and a championship-level American Legion program during the summer. There’s also the usual variety of community sports to deal with, a community college men’s basketball team that was ranked in the top 10 in the nation last year, and Appalachian State University is just a half-hour’s drive away. Would like to hire someone with experience at a weekly or daily newspaper, but will seriously consider recent college graduates who have experience covering sports for their college paper. Being able to perform on a tight deadline is a must, and design-layout experience and-or photography skills are a plus. Please send resume, cover letter and 5-7 clips of your most-recent work by snail mail to Bill Kiser, sports editor, Lenoir News-Topic, P.O. Box 1100, Lenoir, N.C. 28645; or by e-mail to bkiser@newstopic.net (either cut and paste text into e-mail, or send PDF files). Questions about the position can be sent to that e-mail address, or PM me here on SportsJournalists.com. We are moving quickly to fill this position - the current staffer’s last day is in mid-January - so the deadline for sending resumes and clips is Jan. 6, 2010.

EDIT: A warning to anyone sending their resume and clips as e-mail attachments ... our system has a size limit on attachments (I think it's 8 MB, but not sure) ... if you send something and the e-mail bounced back, that's why ...

 

Many trips to lovely Boone in this gig, I reckon. I say that in all seriousness. Love the area around ASU.

 

You would be right ... we didn't make any trips to Appalachian State football games this year simply because of scheduling conflicts, but I hope that can be rectified for the 2010 season ...

 

Are you the new(ish) SE there? I remember that job popped open in the summer.

Lenoir's not a bad little foothills/mountain town. 20 minutes from Hickory, probably hour or so from Winston-Salem and 90 minutes from Charlotte, so you're not too far removed from the nice chains and reasonable nightlife.

 

Yeah, "newish" would be right -- been here since mid-July ... no, it's not a bad place to live ... Hickory is close by, and so is Boone (although taking 321 at night through the mountains can get a little hairy) ...

 

Lenoir is a nice little town, and a friend of mine started here and moved up fairly quickly.

 

SportsGuyBCK, we crossed paths a few times when you were in Statesville. Good luck on the new hire. It's a good gig, so you should have no trouble attracting good candidates.

 

How soon will you start interviewing for this job? What is the pay range? Will the position allow for coverage of ASU football?

 

spartan47: why don't you pm him? a couple of you questions are basically answered in the job posting and in the thread.

 

For a small town, you can do a lot worse than Lenoir. A lot worse.

 

Expendable, you got that right. A great location.

 

UPDATE -- We've stopped accepting applications for the position ... I got two dozen in less than two weeks, and have narrowed those down to the top four ... calling their references now, will do telephone interviews with the candidates, and hopefully will make the final decision this weekend ...

Thanks for everyone who sent their resumes and clips ... wish I had the open positions to hire more than one person, because there were some really good candidates that applied ...