We need help!
Our newsroom has been undermanned since early October. After a couple of false starts, we still have two vacancies for full-time news reporters.
While we prefer it, you do not necessarily need a degree or experience in journalism. We have hired people with backgrounds in all kinds of things: criminal justice, German literature, office administration.
The most important requirements of the job are excellent writing skills, a commitment to accuracy and objectivity, a strong work ethic, flexibility, and common sense. An interest in local government helps.
We can teach you everything else: how to write a news article, how to write in journalistic style, the ins and outs of local government and the other things we cover – breaking news, business news, community events, courts, features.
If you know why the news we cover matters – how the school budget impacts both students and taxpayers, the positions of each candidate for selectman on important issues, how a zoning proposal could affect a neighborhood – we might have a place for you.
If you would embrace the prospect of an ever-changing schedule, of going to work every day not knowing what you might be doing or where you might end up; if work on nights and weekends in exchange for flexibility elsewhere in your schedule appeals to you, what are you waiting for?
Maybe you are a recent college graduate with a degree in English or liberal arts or political science and you don’t know what you want to do next, but you know your current employment (or lack of employment) underutilizes your potential.
Maybe you studied journalism a long time ago, ended up in a different field, and always wanted to go back and give it a try. Maybe you retired from journalism or a related field and want to rejoin the workforce.
Journalism is as much a lifestyle as a job. You have to want to do it. If you approach it as a paycheck only, you will fail. Journalism – particularly at a rural weekly newspaper – is not going to make you rich or famous.
But journalism can be a rewarding career. To enjoy your work and find meaning in it, as many of us do, is reward in itself.
We learn every day. We meet interesting people. The work we do changes the course of events in our community – not because we attempt to shape events in a certain way, but because we inform our readers about events and our readers shape events.
If this sounds interesting to you, send us your resume and writing samples. The samples don’t have to be published news articles. Just show us you can write.
But do so promptly – we are already conducting interviews and hope to make hiring decisions as soon as possible.
For more information about the position and how to apply, see our ad in the classifieds section of the Jan. 18 print edition or online.
