Waterloo-Cedar Falls (IA) Courier sports reporter/designer

It doesn't have to be on a riverboat anymore.

The Waterloo casino is along the Cedar River, but it's a permanent structure.

Our casino here is in the middle of town. It is built on a man-made body of water (which isn't much).

Getting back to the Courier _ nice paper, great staff. They cover UNI and Iowa State, share Iowa coverage with the Quad City Times.

 

And I'll add my two cents besides the gambling... lol

The Courier is a good paper and the Waterloo market does have a lot to do in it for some people. Cedar Rapids and Iowa City within driving distance and Minneapolis, Des Moines and Omaha are several hours away.

 

The guy that left our department did primarily layout, but some of the beats and assignments will be restructured once we bring in a new person. There is a strong possibility the individual could cover Northern Iowa volleyball (a Top 35 to 40 program), Northern Iowa women's basketball and preps. There will be some desk work involved.

When fully staffed, our department is six full-timers and five to six part-timers. Because of that, each of the full-time members are required to do layout in some capacity and we have one part-timer who does the agate/scoreboard page on the weekends.

Northern Iowa football and men's basketball get a lot of ink, as we cover those teams religiously. With Ames being 90 minutes from the area, we do cover Iowa State football home and away. We also have given more attention to Iowa State hoops recently because UNI's former coach is now the head man there. We do staff most University of Iowa home football games, but we rely on our sister paper (The Quad-City Times) for coverage on the road.

We also staff the Division I, Division II and Division III national wrestling meets each year, and junior hockey -- the Waterloo Black Hawks -- is big here. They draw anywhere from 2,500 to 3,000 per night, and have been highly successful the past five years.

As is the case with most places, preps are significant. We cover around 40 to 45 high schools. We do a thorough job of covering high school football. On a lesser basis, we cover two Division III schools -- Wartburg and Luther, along with Division II Upper Iowa. We do a good job with these schools during football, but not as much during the other times of the year unless there is a reason to.

One other note that should be mentioned. We are an afternoon paper Monday through Friday, but publish Saturday and Sunday morning. For anyone with a family, it's not bad because you will have at least three or four nights a week free. Also, afternoons are typically open.

Typically, we're in the office from 5 or 6 a.m. to noon each weekday. On weekends, we come in around 4 and are out of here by midnight or 1 a.m. during football season.

If anybody has questions, feel free to ask. For those interested, I'd think they'll be taking resumes/clips for at least another two weeks or so.

 

Ah, the good old days of split shifts and long Fridays.

 

For those who know nothing about Iowa (such as me)...geographically, how far is Waterloo from other big Midwest cities?

 

It's probably equidistant from the Twin Cities and Chicago. The problem is unless you're going southeast (down I-380), you can't get there from anywhere. U.S. 20 is four-lane across Iowa, but I'm not sure if it is once it crosses into Illinois.

Good paper, some good guys work there. As mentioned, UNI is not a bad beat at all. Covering the Missouri Valley Conference keeps you busy.

 

Listening to MVC commish Doug Elgin pontificate every March as to why more teams didn't make the NCAA tourney may cause self-induced vomiting. You've been warned.

 

Waterloo has a great water park.

 

Waterloo is located approximately 2 hours northeast of Des Moines, the state capital. It's about an hour and 15 minutes northwest of Iowa City (home of the Hawks), 3 hours southeast of Minneapolis, nearly 5 hours north of Kansas City and 4 1/2 hours west of Chicago. Waterloo is around 70,000 people and Cedar Falls, where the University of Northern Iowa is located and about 8-10 miles from Waterloo, is about 35-40,000 people.

Most of the drive to Chicago on Highway 20 is four lane except for about a 30-minute stretch once you get into Illinois around the Galena area. That part is brutal, but it's much faster than taking I-380 down toward Iowa City and then hitting I-80.

 

Which, you know, is REALLY important when assessing whether to pursue a job or not.

 

Any word on this yet? ....

 

The position just came open last week. We're still taking resumes/clips for another week at least.