Times of NW Indiana, Copy Editor/Enterprise Sports Writer

I'd love a split job like that.

There are papers, mainly those who still have a separate Sunday staff (a few of those beasts are left), who still employ this setup -- report during the week, edit on deadline.

 

I can tell you from experience that the combination enterprise/desk pretty much sucks. It sounds good. Maybe it will be for the first few months or so. Maybe they'll even tell you that you'll work 2 desk nights a week, and enterprise the other three days. But then a desk person will go on vacation and you'll have to work 4 desk nights for a few weeks. Or maybe one of them will leave and the company will take their sweet old time replacing that person, or they won't replace the person at all, and before you know it, you might get one day a week to work on enterprise. But because your staff is short-handed, you won't be working on enterprise that one day, you'll be covering a HS soccer game or filling in somewhere else.

Forgive me for sounding jaded, but like some other people said, when the job cuts come, the enterprise spot is the first to go. Or the job becomes mostly copy editing. I hope I'm wrong in this case. But I get the feeling I'm not.

 

Yep, Fletch. Those were pretty much my feelings.

 

I never understand what writers have agianst working desk shifts. At the places I've been the desk guys are the ones with something on the ball. And if you've got a good group, a night on the desk cracking jokes and talking sports is way more enjoybale than sitting on press row.

 

Don't get me wrong, I always enjoyed the people I worked with on the desk. And you're right, they are typically on the ball when it comes to sports. But a part of me also resented the hell out of the fact that I would have to edit the copy of a beat writer who couldn't put a coherent sentence together. It used to burn me up sometimes. Who knows, maybe the people on the copydesk at the paper I work at are saying the same thing about me.

Personally, I always preferred to write. I was grateful to finally get that chance, and I never want to give that up. I would assume that whoever wants to be an enterprise writer at the Times of NW Indiana would rather spend his or her time working on enterprise stories instead of spending 3-4 days a week working desk. Or, as Playthrough pointed out, working 12-hour days doing both.

 

Agreed. I can remember some days covering a 1 p.m. minor league baseball game, then going into the office to do the agate page. That's 5+ hours at the ballpark and 5+ hours in the office. And then they bitched and moaned when I had overtime on the time card.

 

The thing that would concern me more than the fact that it's a split position is the fact that it's owned by Lee. If you want to pay a small fortune for your health insurance premiums, by all means, work for them.

 

If I am not mistaken, this is the paper that posted a part-time college hoops beat writing job last year.

 

Not here. I have two close friends who work there on the news side, and the paper does not pay overtime. That means once you hit 40 hours you stop or you work pro bono.

Nice to see someone's hiring, at least, don't get me wrong. But a lot of red flags here, for the several reasons posted here and then some. Ten years ago, this was a sweet gig. Now... well, this isn't the same paper it used to be (then again, who is these days?). This has recent college grad written all over it (and for a recent college grad, it's a terrific job).

 

You are correct.

 

Editor: Hey Prince, where are you going? You're page is only half designed.

Prince: Yeah, I hit 40 hours just as I was about to format those Little League boxscores. Have fun with that while I'm putting down a couple of Blue Moons at the bar.