Sports Editor, Jackson, Tenn.

[thegrifter]

I heard they're not even bringing in candidates. seems kid of odd considering how long its been open.

 

[Fourth and 8]

The job of sports editor at a small Gannett paper is the classic no-win situation. You'd have to be an idiot or a masochist to take this position. Once upon a time, the Sun covered University of Tennessee football and the Tennessee Titans, home and away. The Sun also used to staff Memphis basketball during the Penny Hardaway era. Those days are long gone. Now the Sun publishes middle school football roundups. There's a Class AA baseball team in town and the Sun seldom bothers to staff its home games. And Gannett can't understand why its papers keep losing readers despite the "local-local" focus.

That's absolutely true. The Sun doesn't give a shirt about the Double A team and it is misguided about preps. I can see them borrowing from the Tennesseean on UT - they're blood kin and a trip to K'ville is about six hours from Jackson. But this place is a revolving door from heck....where they expect the SE to attend day budget meetings and night budget meetings because of the self-contained importance of the NEWS department and day shift people who have lost touch with the real business.

 

[Faithless]

Just curious .... How many writers and deskers are on the Sun sports staff?

 

[Tarheel316]

Let me get this straight. The SE has to attend day AND night budget meetings? That's a nightmare.

 

[RyanStinky]

one of my old college buddies used to work in jackson. he told me they haven't really covered the double a team for a few years because of a lack of interest in the community and just not really having enough writers. he said it didn't help that they had a couple of hires that just didn't pan out (ie unable to do the job from what he was told by those still there).

last he heard they have a sports editor, a prep guy, a college writer/page designer, a full-time designer and a ga writer. he wasn't sure if anything's changed since he left.

say what you want about the place and its "misguided" approach to preps but it's hard to complain with some of the awards they've won. i checked the apse site and they were top 10 sunday two years ago, top 10 daily last year and one of their guys finished third in apse project reporting last year.

 

[2underpar]

isn't there some rumor that the Double A team might be leaving? I always thought that they do a really good job with preps. And let's face it, there's not a whole lot of interest in Memphis hoops and football in that part of Tennessee. Probably some interest in the grizzlies, but not enough to warrant a full-time beat guy for either. Probably more interest in the Titans than the Grizz. I do know they have been a little standoffish when we've asked them for some help on certain games that crossover into their coverage area.

 

[Yawn]

Let me get this straight. The SE has to attend day AND night budget meetings? That's a nightmare.

Gannett's number one priority in the newsroom is meetings. Didn't you know that?

 

[thegrifter]

one of my old college buddies used to work in jackson. he told me they haven't really covered the double a team for a few years because of a lack of interest in the community and just not really having enough writers. he said it didn't help that they had a couple of hires that just didn't pan out (ie unable to do the job from what he was told by those still there).

last he heard they have a sports editor, a prep guy, a college writer/page designer, a full-time designer and a ga writer. he wasn't sure if anything's changed since he left.

say what you want about the place and its "misguided" approach to preps but it's hard to complain with some of the awards they've won. i checked the apse site and they were top 10 sunday two years ago, top 10 daily last year and one of their guys finished third in apse project reporting last year.

and now they have a new desker, and the person primarily responsible for all those APSE awards is gone. Bob was the SE and he won the reporting APSE award as well.

 

[RyanStinky]

I did a google search for the jackson sun and the tennessee sports writers association and found one of their other sports guys won some awards last year too.

 

[BudMan]

The fact that the AA team is considering leaving due to "a lack of interest" strikes me as a good reason to do some in-depth reporting on the team. Jackson sold its soul to get that team and build that stadium, and I'm not certain that either side ever fully honored its commitments. Covering preps makes good business sense for any newspaper, but staffing middle school games makes no sense at all. Gannett could give a crap about any awards this section wins, as long as the paper makes its 35 percent profit margin every year. "A revolving door from heck" is the perfect way to describe the Sun.

 

[thegrifter]

Ryan,

I did a google search for the jackson sun and the tennessee sports writers association and found one of their other sports guys won some awards last year too.

RS, we get it. you like your job there. And congrats on your awards last year.

 

[DanOregon]

heck, that stadium is less than 5 years old isn't it? Pringle Park. Nice place. Kind of surprising there isn't interest. Not a lot else going on in Jackson most nights. I was stunned to see the paper covers 44 high schools with a circ of 33,000. Seems like a bad ratio.