St. Paul backup Twins/GA

Just posted on JJobs.com:

Company: Saint Paul Pioneer Press
Position: Backup Twins/General Assignment Sports Reporter
Location: St. Paul , Minnesota
Job Status: Full-time
Salary: Not Specified
Ad Expires: March 13, 2007
Job ID: 734688
Website: http://www.twincities.com


Description:
The Pioneer Press is seeking a standout reporter and writer to fill a variety of roles, primarily in regard to the Minnesota Twins beat. The reporter will work closely with the primary Twins beat reporter and assigning editors, executing everything from centerpieces to sidebars to off-day features to game stories, while understanding that breaking news will always be the priority, in the newspaper and online. When not doing baseball, the reporter will be available for a variety of roles, such as backup work on other beats and General Assigment. Work will be done under deadline constraints set by the assigning editor of a particular piece, and it must be be accurate, fair and balanced and enhance the credibility of the newspaper in the community. There must be a sense of urgency, making breaking news a top priority and showing a willingness to embrace last-minute changes in coverage plans -- and still meet critical deadlines for daily and weekend work and standards for high-impact journalism. The reporter must be creative, producing work that is unique in the marketplace, that is differentiated from news/information provided by other media, that gives our newspaper personality and sense of place. The reporter must take initiative, showing ability to anticipate and plan ahead for news coverage and willingness to contribute to discussions that lead to quality news coverage and solutions to problems. The reporter must show willingness to take risks with coverage and approaches and an ability to learn from others. The reporter must work closely with other areas of the newspaper -- including photo, graphics and online -- to enhance the overall quality of the product. The reporter must understand that the sports section is a product of the ideas, talents, performance and other contributions made by every one of its staff members and that the responsibility for its overall quality rests with all of us. A college degree is required. In most cases, the job requires daily deadline experience writing sports stories at a professional newspaper. Experience covering baseball is preferred. Because of the nature of this position, a successful completion of a background screen including a consumer report/investigative consumer report is required. Those interested should contact Mike Bass Senior Editor/Sports St. Paul Pioneer Press 345 Cedar Street St. Paul, MN 55101 mbass@pioneerpress.com 651-228-5108

 

I just saw this, too.

Is this a new position?

Are things still fairly crazy at the PiPress sports department?

Somebody needs to drop some inside info here...

 

Does "college degree required" sound like they're aiming to go young/cheap to anyone else?

 

I think this means Jason Williams finally followed through and left the business. Too bad if true ... good guy.

 

The background screen thing seems a bit odd.

 

I was just going to ask if this was indeed the case. If so, a loss. Great guy with some great stories.

 

Waiting for the inevitable Mike Bass bashing to commence.

Also, warning: This soon will be a Lean Dean publication. See previous warnings/results in San Jose/Northern California and the debacle in Southern California.

 

Hey, I'm young and cheap, and I have a college degree.

Waiting for it. . .

 

YOU'RE HIRED!

 

Is this the paper that hired Brady Slater? If so, then the background check makes a little more sense.

 

Here's the skinny from Minnesoohhta:

Gordon Wittenmyer was hired by the Sun-Times to cover the Cubs. He was the primary Twins beat writer for several years until he was pulled off a couple years ago midseason to back up Jason Williams, who remains the No. 1 guy.
Despite the 20 newsroom buyouts and razor-thin depth in sports, management still wants 2 baseball writers. Rumor has it they're interested in a guy from Boston