Are you an aspiring reporter who wants to work the graveyard shift -- perhaps to the point where you'll need a grave yourself?
Well, the Poughkeepsie Journal has a job for you! Here's the posting's description:
"The overnight reporter provides content for all platforms with a focus on keeping www.PoughkeepsieJournal.com and its social media outlets fresh with the latest news and related multimedia content, tailored for use on each platform. This 'digital-first' mantra means consistently and effectively breaking stories, updating them, shooting video, using other multimedia tools, etc. It also includes producing watchdog, enterprise, narrative storytelling and conceptualizing digital offerings -- with a key emphasis on serving morning commuters with a complete diet of need-to-know information. This reporter must have deep knowledge of our key audiences and the region’s demographics as well as the ability to work independently. The reporter, who is non-exempt, works 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and reports to the Local Desk."
Isn't No. 10 obvious?
Whew! Just contemplating the following job requirements leaves me exhausted.
Well, the Poughkeepsie Journal has a job for you! Here's the posting's description:
Isn't No. 10 obvious?
Whew! Just contemplating the following job requirements leaves me exhausted.
- Writes breaking-news stories with an emphasis on online, keeping the website fresh with local and regional news.
- Uses "impact voices" from “real people" in all stories to convey how news affects our readers.
- Ensures a complete report for early-rising commuters by updating breaking information via the proper platform.
- Checks in with law enforcement, transportation officials and other key overnight sources to ensure updates are frequent and timely.
- Spins ahead print stories for the web as needed while monitoring the wires for potential web updates and localizations, ensuring the carousels are freshened each hour at a minimum.
- Shoots video, updates social media and ensures content is tailored to audiences on each platform in the format that is preferred by readers/users.
- Writes off-the-news enterprise pieces, analysis, features and profiles, using narrative storytelling frequently.
- Ensures that high standards for accuracy, fairness, writing, ethical and legal issues are met.
- Ensures stories are mainstreamed and diverse so they reflect the mid-Hudson Valley’s demographics.
- Reads the Poughkeepsie Journal and poughkeepsiejournal.com every day and stays abreast of regional, state, national and international events.
[Image: Brenda Starr]
I guess I don't understand the sarcasm. If you are going to run s 24/7 operation don't you need someone at night? Or do you just make fun of anything Gannett does?
ReplyDeleteWell, 12:08, let me help you out.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I agree with the part about the 24-hour operation. But these hours are not going to attract a slew of people.
Also, the main point is there are a lot of requirements listed here.
I'm quite tired, so I'll let you puzzle through this for now. Let me know if you need more explanation.
And don't forget the pay: $30,000 with limited benefits (and no pension). I'm sure people will be lining up for that job!
ReplyDeleteSounds like 12:08 has never worked in a newsroom ... are you one of the many "marketing gurus" being hired by the company these days?
ReplyDeleteWhen would they have time to shoot, edit, and produce video?
ReplyDelete12:08 To do even half the work described here -- that is, to do it well -- you'd need more than one someone.
ReplyDeleteSo, really, they want high school and college kids who know how to produce video, babe photo galleries and the occasional wire rewrite story. Promise them a Whitney matheson column or something about mma and $ 27,000 a year and they even work graveyard.
ReplyDeleteOnce more, "storytelling" makes an appearance. Apparently, this is a key buzzword in the new Passion Topics initiative.
ReplyDeleteAbout $90K worth of job responsibilities for a $30K job? Yeah, this has 20-something black female written all over it.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I'll hold out for a VP job; it's about that time of the day for another one getting hired, I think.
One thing not stated here is that, and I will assume that this person is the only one in the newsroom for a good part of this time, is that there is no editor. So in the course of doing this laundry list of chores, you better not mistake or it's your head.
ReplyDeleteOh I get it. The posters here would prefer a one story a week job. Now it makes sense.
ReplyDelete8:24, From what I can gather, the posters are journalists who understand what it takes to get a quality product out the door. I don't work in the newspaper business, but that seems like a whole lot of laundry list for one person to accomplish every night without much compensation. Something is terribly out of whack here. Corporate ought to pay more attention to the journalists and its employees in general so Gannett has half a chance at being a viable company once again.
ReplyDeleteObviously, this job description was written by someone who has never really "worked" in a newsroom. In my career, I've worked every miserable shift you can imagine. Weekend, graveyard and swing shifts. I did it because I cared about what I was doing and I was supported by my editors. Yet, a young reporter is being asked to work overnight, keep track and post everything that happens overnight, provide morning commute and weather information, do investigations, enterprise, shoot, edit and post video and be a storyteller. I'd like to see the person who posted these qualifications do that job. It's a ticket right into the burnout bin. Kind of like those MoJo reporters Kate Marymount used to tout in Fort Myers. You know, the ones who got a real shot of publicity to beef up Kate's stock and then quietly disappeared when people realized what a waste of time the job was. Anyone who takes this job will be gone in three months. I'd suggest that the newspaper's editor show some gumption and lead by example. Let's have him or her assume that overnight job for a month to show people how it is done. No big deal if they can't be reached for their daily "passion topics" meeting.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, and we're doing all this wonderful work -- including interviewing "real people" -- between 11 a.m. and 7 a.m. Can you imagine: "Hello, Mrs. Jones, sorry to wake you up, but...."
ReplyDeleteBTW, quality news organizations get some cracker jack young reporters at $35K. You'd be amazed at who's working for those prices. At Gannett, you get flunkies, because everyone knows that there is no reward for good journalism at Gannett, no promotions, no raises and you never get another job in journalism because the reputation is so bad.
OK, I’m not usually a Gannett backer, but I started out at a job like this. It sucks, but it’s a start. Shifts like this are pretty common in television. Are they going to want fully-produced video? Probably not, but they will want someone to go out to the car crash or fire in the middle of the night and shoot photos, video and talk to the people who witnessed it. Jesus, I understand being negative, but they are at least trying to address the necessity of being a 24-hour news organization.
ReplyDeleteOne would think #10 shouldn't have to be stated but ask a reporter in any Gannett TV station if they watch at least one of the station's newscasts on a regular basis. My experience has been 95% of them will tell you they do not watch local news.
ReplyDeleteI will add that most of them to read the local paper because that's where they get their story ideas.
Scary---
ReplyDeleteMost probably, you are "it".
All alone in the building.
After deadline, and before the office opens.
BTW, if you don't want to work nights, holidays and weekends, work for a bank. It's the nature of the beast.
Oh Jim, this is the job description for all of us at USCP these days. It's not necessarily this formal, but it's preached in staff meetings, daily editorial meetings, etc. The expectations are impossible for one person, although we try to meet them.
ReplyDeleteTV stations in my community typically have an overnight, on-call person who rolls to breaking news and packages something for the early am broadcast. An overnight or very early am person is a good idea as long as it doesn't cost a site another day-side position.
Now they're paying Patch-like wages. The cocky EE of this paper learned how to do what he demands of others. Puckers up to Marymont, his publisher, Silverman now and whoever else it takes to hang on. Always in lock step with the latest corporate edict. Those us us who worked there and still live in the beautiful Hudson Valley are saddened by the decline. Being that we're about 75 miles from New York, my neighbors and I would rather buy the NYT.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, the editors don't stay too much later than when the Journal News' copy desk has the product. I would imagine there is no "probably" about this novice reporter being the only person in the building for the entire shift. Not to mention no "hand off" unless the PoJo has changed the morning cops/GA reporter's hours to start before 7 a.m. Of course management could be assuming the overnight person will brief the morning person on his or her own time before they make their way home. I also wonder who among the editors will be "on call" during the overnights. Cuz s*** is gonna happen in Poughkeepsie.
ReplyDeleteOne thing's for sure, a novice reporter taking this job is going to get the least amount of mentoring of any of the writers.
ReplyDeleteWhen I started out as a reporter in 1985 (OK; cue violins now), I had no formal journalism training. Instead, I got it from an executive editor who sat next to me and edited my copy line-by-line, explaining why he was making the changes.
Ditto when I started doing more complicated investigative projects that required learning how to get public documents and databases, and then evaluate them.
Sounds like a dream job to start off a career with. Stop complaining.
ReplyDeleteDue to economic circumstances, dying ink on paper and low revenue streams from online and digital, it's a "new economy" temporary job w/limited benefits, 11:19, not the start of a career.
ReplyDeleteIt IS a dream job. It's the kind of job I started out in. The kind of job where you learn everything. You may not do everything well but you learn over time how to do everything well. Someone fresh out of school would be wise to jump at a job like that. It allowed me to be versatile in all news media over a career (and yes I did work in a newsroom) and to be the one who works harder than anyone around me because that's all I knew. I'm sorry to say this, but you who post here are like many I know who have taken the lazy route to life. They owe you. You owe nothing to no one. Too bad. You've missed a lot. AND, you know as well as I that you cover what you can when you're alone. If big news breaks, someone else gets called in. C'mon. You scare people looking for jobs and that's too darn bad.
ReplyDeleteFor sure, the author of this responsibilities list was checking all of Corporate's boxes when they included No. 9.
ReplyDeleteI want to watch the reporter desperately looking for the Asian impact voice at 3 a.m.
1:00. I did start with this kind job and worked every major holiday. Learned a lot because of an exceptional top editor who gave a damn about great journalism and stuck his neck out to protect the newsroom. And a number of veteran reporters and copy editors who were generous with their knowledge because they saw that I was willing to learn and work as hard as they did and didn't have an attitude. It was a two-way street. Today, all the veterans have been laid off and most of the editors are spineless, selfish jerks. Industry is going under, and people are behaving in ugly ways but smiling and pushing the young into the wood chipper.
ReplyDeleteThese G A N N E T T editors are C R A Z Y!
ReplyDelete11. Shrugs off repeated furloughs, embarrassing mileage reimbursement rates, lack of adequate technology, no raises, shrinking health benefits, unresponsive human resources department, bring-your-own supplies policy, creative writing on time sheets, shameless benefit packages for top executives, thinly veiled test balloons, template-style-journalism, shrinking stock values, empty desks as neighbors.
ReplyDeletecould these job hours possibly allow you to take college courses during part of the daytime hours?
ReplyDeleteIf you can trample down the hordes of applicants and land this job, you can put something on your resume' AND pay your tuition fees (unless it's Vassar or Bard).
Besides calling the cops, what else will this reporter be able to do in the middle of the night? It's Poughkeepsie, not L.A. Doesn't make sense to me.
ReplyDeletePoughkeepsie already tried something similiar to this when they started the whole 24-hour "Information Center" stuff. They would have a reporter come in and work a 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. shift. Their logic, which actually makes some sense for the Poughkeepsie area, is that they were filling the web site with some early news for the commuters who were getting up at that hour to commute to NYC.
ReplyDeleteBut they never could keep the shift filled. They'd first try to have a veteran reporter fill the shift, which would last a couple of months until they got tired of waking up at 4 a.m. to go to work and they'd bolt for greener pastures. Then they would try to hire some young kids out of college, only to see them leave six months later because no kid out of college wants to wake up at 4 a.m. to go to work. They'd like to, you know, have some semblance of a life where they don't have to go to bed at 9 p.m.
The job description is silly, of course. But the core idea isn't -- an overnight news watcher who can hit early websurfers with news, updates, the most relevant aggregation and even, hold your breath, provide analysis? Great idea. That's where newspapers SHOULD be going.
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered why, at my site, there are four guys who do the Web shift, and they all work M-F day shifts. Who does the night web posting? The copy desk, who will lose their jobs soon when production moves to the hub.
ReplyDeleteNumber 10 is NOT too obvious. A majority of reporters in the newsroom where I used to work did NOT read their own newpaper. Some stopped reading when free delivery for staff ended years ago. Others just don't care what's going on in their community. It's sad.
ReplyDeleteDitto on that, 2:08. And it wasn't just the newsroom at my former site. Imagine an ad rep going out in the field and a customer saying, so, how's about this story about xyz? And the rep goes, Duh?
ReplyDeleteOy vey.
No. 7 (Writes off-the-news enterprise pieces, analysis, features and profiles, using narrative storytelling frequently) interests me. This reporter works from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. When does he or she do interviews for these enterprise pieces, features and profiles unless the stories are all about people who work the graveyard shift? "Sorry to call you at 3 a.m., but ..."
ReplyDeleteWhoever goes to work for that EE tool will commit career suicide.
ReplyDelete"One thing's for sure, a novice reporter taking this job is going to get the least amount of mentoring of any of the writers."
ReplyDeleteTrust me Jim, there's very little mentoring going on there regardless of when the reporter works.