Staff Writer vs ME

Travis: I had a similar choice at your age (of course, that was close to 20 years ago ... yikes) and I went with the ME gig at the weekly.

As ME, I still did most of the writing — sports and news — but for the first time, I took a stab at layout, headline writing, and other copy editor-esque stuff. That eventually led me to copy editor/paginating jobs at small dailies, and I'm still plugging away in that role today (although I still dabble in writing and even photography once in a while).

If pay and hours are relatively equal, consider the Managing Editor job. You never know ... you might be well-suited for the glamourous role of copy editor!

 

If your goal is to write sports, you might not like the desk duties at all. Less time for writing, too.


"Don't fuck with happy." — Elliotte Friedman?

 

You said the former ME transferred to your location. Have you spoken to him/her about the position?

Even if they were canned and the move was not voluntary, he/she should have some things to say about both the positives/negatives of the job and any particular issues or reasons they might have left. Ask about the duties, scope of freedom/leeway, whom/what there is to deal with that someone might not realize unless they're in the job, what the worst parts of it were, what there was to learn (or unlearn) that impacted that person, and even, bluntly, the pay.

 

My first reaction was to stay in your present position, but on second thought I wouldn't be so quick to turn it down. It sounds like the company sees it as a good place for you to gain experience, and perhaps, move you back to the daily at some point in the future. And you're not really where you want to be right now, anyway. This is also a perfect opportunity to let your intentions be known about sports if you haven't already done so.

Also, they brought this guy over from the other paper, which means they are over the roster limit by one, so to speak, and they have to do some trimming. They can accomplish this one of two ways -- by moving you over or out. Are you prepared for "out"? If not, you might want to take it and start looking for another job elsewhere, because soon you could possibly be doing the same thing with no job.

 

I use that quite often. Glad to know where I picked it up. Great advice.

But in this case, I'm sensing that happy is fucking with him.

 

There's some great advice here, especially from Write. Overall I understand the majority of the comments being don't do it, but I would tend to side with sportsed on this one. I'll add to those comments this: long term, having management experience should help you, especially if you decide to leave the business one day. Say in 5-10 years you decide to take a communications job with a government agency. All other things being equal, which will look more impressive on a resume, someone who managed a paper at the age of 25 or someone who covered games at 25?
All of that said, those comments would be in general. For this situation in specific, there are some questions to be answered before making the choice. In particular, talk to the now-former ME as Write suggested. And the amount of turnover, most recently with the publisher leaving, adds some question marks to the idea of making the change.

 

I've actually turned down a couple of "management" jobs over the years to stay in sports. I wouldn't do it again though. But that's me, and I'm much closer to retirement. But I do tend to agree with the general feel here, and stay with sports.
But, I would try to get a sense for why they want you to transfer, what they think you could do there, etc.. Do they think you are a bad writer, but would be a better manager? Do they think you have potential for bigger things? Do they want to bring you back to sports down the road?
Plus, if you have the skill set to turn the 3K circulation paper into a4K, that is something that can go a long way into getting you a great gig down the road (in sports even).
And, the other question to ask is, if you don't take the transfer, is this the type of company that would hold that against you? You don't want to turn them down then five years down the road find out your in the same job, covering the same crap for the same salary, be passed over for promotion to the SE job and not able to find any other work. Trust me, it happens.
You'll get a better feel for these questions with age, but it's nice to have t deal with it now.
Either way, good luck.

 

I don't think there is necessarily a right or wrong answer here. Cliche alert, but either job will ultimately be what you make of it.

Will the ME job require/allow you to write on the side? If so then you will still be able to generate clips and you will have the freedom to cover whatever you choose. You could probably cover some sports-ish stuff, write columns, etc.

Also as an ME you may have the opportunity to network and make connections in your community that you might not otherwise come by, which could lead to other opportunities.

On the other hand, they may cut your staff at the weekly right after you get there and you'll spend the rest of your days typing briefs and proof-reading calendar pages.