Q. I will soon be graduating from a very large state school with a good amount of experience under my belt. I spent about a year-and-a-half in different areas at the student newspaper here before moving on to the small local daily (about a 25,000 circulation). There, I've worked about 30 hours a week as a police reporter for almost two years and have been lucky to get some solid clips. I have also been able to get some other experience on the side with using audio and blogging.
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My goal is to end up at a major metro, but I know that I am going to have to pay my dues first. I have had a great experience at the paper I work for now, and they have told me they want to hold an open full-time position at the paper for me to pick up when I graduate (which is still several months away). Still, I know that I should at least explore my options before I commit to anything.
Looking at job openings online, I noticed a few at papers in the region that are about twice the size of the one that I am at now. More importantly, they belong to companies that own larger papers in cities where I dream about working.
For the sake of discussion, let's pretend that I apply and get an offer at one of these papers (I know I will be lucky to get that far, given the current market). The job would be in an unfamiliar, moderate-sized town where I wouldn't know anyone. If I stayed put, however, I would be in a college town with people I know and a culture I enjoy. My question:
Does a reporter working for a chain have a better chance of getting jobs at the dailies higher up in the chain?
It seems to me that the editors doing the hiring at these larger papers (sometimes in different regions of the country) wouldn't have much interest in reading their smaller sister papers. Maybe I am wrong, though. If I knew moving to one of these markets would give me a leg up on the competition to get to my dream job, I would do it in a second. Still, if it doesn't matter where the clips are being produced, as long as they are good clips, I would just prefer to stay where I have a good relationship with my employers and where I know they trust me. This paper has a good reputation for its size, and I know of people who have made the leap to major dailies from it. Still, it is owned by a small corporation that doesn't own any other papers I would want to go to.
What do you think?
Thanks,
Matthew A. I have worked in three chains. In every case, editors at my paper knew editors at many of the sister papers. We always felt comfortable calling our colleagues to ask about talented people. So, we
are familiar with each other and our newspapers and know which ones are doing the best job and in which areas.
So, it is always advisable to work in a quality operation, and it can be helpful if that operation is inside a larger network.
If you have destination papers in mind, I would talk to the editors early and ask what they use as their farm teams.
I see no downside to starting where you will feel most comfortable -- and no real downside for trying to sign with another paper that shares an owner with one of your destination choices. You can't lose.
Grimm on internships:
"Breaking In: The JobsPage.com Guide to Newspaper Internships."
Coming Tuesday: Convicted five years ago of driving while intoxicated, he now finds that some larger newspapers won't touch him. He wonders whether he is banished from the land of big papers.
