I left a gig that was mainly college sports, but also included everything from pro backups to preps at The Asbury Park Press (185,000 to 199,000 depending on who you believe) for a full-time column gig at The Ann Arbor News (50,000).
At the time, the move was all about the column, but there have been so many other benefits.
The News is privately held and has a huge commitment to sports (we often joke we'd stop covering city hall before Michigan), so we've been less impacted by the downturn in the business than many papers. The Press, meanwhile, has cut back to the point that it basically only covers high schools. There's a lot less bureaucracy. Have a vision for tomorrow's paper? Usually it's pretty easy to talk to the SE and/or our desk guys. Want to try something new? Again, usually pretty easy.
The Jersey market was sliced and diced 18 different ways - the NY dailies, the Jersey papers, Philly in the South, etc. Here, my neighbors and the people I cover read my paper and offer tons of feedback, good and bad. It's not unusual for people to yell stuff at me from a car window downtown (and it's not even always bad stuff).
Unlike Jersey, where everybody lived all over the place and, as a result, often did really know each other much, let alone socialize, I know the people at my paper and in my department very well. My best friends here are the guys I work with. I know their families and they know mine. We socialize together a lot. If my car is broken, our football writer swings by to pick me up for work, and I do the same for him.
That's not to say it's Nirvana. There are times the Detroit papers can marshall more people or spend more money and you wish you had those resources. There are times we don't look as pretty as they do, again mostly because of resources and bodies. It's usually fairly impossible to sneak anything past your boss at a smaller paper. You might have to fiddle with your vacation dates because a smaller paper can't have all of its writers off at the same time. When there are cutbacks - we're currently letting one full-time writing position sit open and haven't filled our last 3 part-time spots that left - we feel them a lot more than you'd feel it at a bigger paper.
In the end, the circ. size should only be a small part of why you do - or don't - make the move. You've gotta evaluate fit more than anything - are these people you want to work with? Is it a better job in terms of responsibilities? Does the paper have a commitment to sports? If you answer yes on all those questions, the circ probably shouldn't matter.
Oh, and I did technically take a pay cut to come here. A small one. I came out ahead, though, because Newhouse offers free health benefits for the entire family. If I were still working for Gannett, I'd be paying $7,000 a year for the same coverage. Win.
