News / Clark County News

From the Newsroom: Hiring employees can present challenges

By Craig Brown, Columbian Editor

Published: August 11, 2018, 6:07am

Columbian Editor Craig Brown

If you have ever been in charge of managing people, you might agree with me that one of the toughest things to do is to hire a new employee.

Over the last 20 years, I must have hired several dozen. I like to remember the spectacular successes, the reporters who brought energy, insight, intelligence and hard work to The Columbian. But there have been a few times where I didn’t make the best choice.

I was thinking about this the other day when reviewing applications for two positions we currently have open: business editor and business reporter. The business editor is a position we haven’t had for a while; I am restructuring a couple of other jobs in an attempt to get more business news into the paper and on our website. This new business editor will be a player-coach, spending most of the day reporting and writing and the rest of the day editing.

As we were recruiting for that position, our talented young business reporter, Troy Brynelson, announced he was taking a job with an online news startup in Oregon. So that left me looking for two great people.

It seems to be harder to find these people than it used to be. Maybe it is the tight employment market. Good candidates have their choice of jobs, so why would they want to take what’s been called the third-worst job in America? (I don’t believe this for a minute, though if you want a job with lots of pay and banker’s hours, don’t become a news reporter.)

Or maybe it is because there are fewer news reporters than there used to be. From 2006 to 2016, the American Society of News Editors tallied more than 20,000 job losses in our industry. Finally, ASNE gave up and quit counting. A lot of these talented former journalists are just that: former journalists. They’ve moved on to new careers in public relations, marketing, law, and almost everything else.

What makes a good Columbian reporter?

First of all, I look for someone with at least a little bit of professional experience. My dream candidate has at least two years on the job, preferably at a small daily newspaper in the Pacific Northwest. They’ll have examples to show, and just by reading the first 150 words of their stories, you can tell if they know how to quickly spot the news, how to organize it into a story, and how to make it interesting and relevant.

A college education is important. Reporters have to learn new things, sometimes very complicated things, quickly. Then they need to explain them accurately and understandably. A bachelor’s degree indicates that they have spent at least four years honing these skills. The school they attended doesn’t matter (although we seem to have had a lot of success with Western Washington University alumni), nor do I think a master’s degree is a major credential.

I do give big points to anyone who lives in or grew up in Clark County. They know their Fourth Plains from their Mill Plains, so they won’t make simple geographic mistakes, and are likely to have deep community ties that lead to great news and feature stories.

We also want people to fit in and feel comfortable. One of the most important parts of the hiring process is the peer interview, where applicants meet a group of their would-be co-workers. Do our reporters want to work with them? Do they want to work with our reporters?

If you know someone like this, have them send me their resume!

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