Sports Writer, Springfield, Mo.

I'm still not understanding why the SE is unable to ride herd on this endeavor. She clearly has chops, or else she wouldn't have the gig. This, to me, is disconcerting when you combine it with the EE's um, interesting, approach.

 

I'm with you, Fred. Why is the EE involved in the hiring of a women's sports beat reporter. And if women's basketball is the biggest beat at this newspaper, where does MSU football rank?

 

MSU football is horrible. The team is awful. The last couple of years they've gotten better, but I think my senior year, they won like.. 2 games. The students only go when they get in for free and usually on Thursday nights. Again, this was three years ago, but that's not that long ago.

And maybe that's the pecking order. I know of papers where the publisher is the person in charge of hiring for all positions. Or maybe the sports editor is part of a committee that's headed be the EE. There could be a variety of reasons. I mean, the sports editor is female, what if she's on a maternity leave? It could be any number of reasons.

 

I've seen my share of poorly written and edited cover letters, so taking professional care isn't as obvious as you'd hope or expect.

 

No offense, but did you look at ABC circulation statistics before posting this? This is called doing homework on a paper:

US NEWSPAPER - SEARCH RESULTS  

Search Type: United States Circulation averages for the six months ended:
3/31/2008
State: Missouri
Selection: springfield (Contains)  
Sort By: Title ASC
Results Found: 3

Preliminary figures subject to audit as filed with the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
* Total Circulation = Total Average Paid Circulation

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Publication Name Frequency Circulation Type Total Circulation* Filing Status
NEWS-LEADER, SPRINGFIELD (GREENE CO.) SAT M DLY 54,096  
NEWS-LEADER, SPRINGFIELD (GREENE CO.) SUN DLY 77,607  
NEWS-LEADER, SPRINGFIELD (GREENE CO.) AVG M (M-F) DLY 54,307
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Those numbers are a far, far cry from a 700K metro area and a major metro paper. If that population total you gave is correct, then there are major problems in the N-L circ department if it's only denting less than 1/10th of that "major paper in a metro area" figure you quoted on Sundays and even less during the week.

I'm not dogging the paper or its hiring practices. To each their own. But to say it's a major metro at an average of less than 55K circulation is preposterous.

 

I didn't say it's "a" major paper. I said it's "the" major paper in the area. I know the paper and I know the area.

Though I do stand corrected. I went back and looked at my source. I was quoting that from what I thought I remembered. When I went back and looked at the numbers again, it was 420,000 for the entire metro.

So I do apologize for that, but I stand by what I said about the paper. It's "the" major paper in the area.

 

That's called a red flag of dysfunction. Shame on your paper for putting you on that situation. If you ever get to the point where your shop encourages people to be more focused on the next job then the current one, you have a problem.

Maybe it was a slow period when your SE did that, so perhaps I should keep that under consideration...

 

It's a television station, but we have a new news director and it's not dysfunction. I have to be able to impress him. Working harder than ever before is what it takes.

 

Not to pile on, but ... it's hard to figure 420,000 as a meaningful number, either. How far is the circle being drawn to pull in that many people? Too far, I think. Way too far.

I know the area pretty well. Spent significant time there.

Most of those towns you mentioned -- Ozark and Nixa and so on -- are pretty darn small, at least in terms of trying to find 270,000 more people to add to Springfield's 150,000. Also, we're not exactly talking about one big, contiguous city area with suburbs.

To get to 420,000 there's a lot of rural area being covered, then small towns being considered as part of the region.

But carry on.

 

spup knows of the area and is trying to paint a more clear picture, yet some people choose to challenge her. to that, i say suck it. you guys are douche nozzles.

she has nothing to gain or lose; she's just trying to help people out.

 

Metro areas are determined by continuous space with X persons per square mile. I imagine she didn't just pull that number out of a hat.

 

The Census estimates the population of the Springfield metro area at 420,020 as of July 2007.