I am looking for someone who says sure I can cover that and thanks for the opportunity (there are so few reporting positions available nowadays and it will keep going down).
We may have a day with hardly any stories and one with five or six morning and evening.
What I am really looking for is someone who enjoys this a lot and their main interest is the rare and wonderful opportunity of being able to write for a surprisingly large daily audience, to create and to continually improve as a wordsmith, not to be tied down to a desk job and a clock on the wall (try working at - fill in the blank corporation - for a week), to be able to go to the most interesting places where the action is that day, to scoop the other media, to be able to write stories that uncover wrongdoing and help set things right, to write a story that is "right down the middle" and gives no hint to the reader which side or political party you might personally favor, to write warm feature articles about wonderful talented people and make their day as well as that of their mama and daddy and grandpa, and be a vital part of an exciting unique online only newspaper that has survived for 21 years and is somehow able to cover the costs of many employees with a "free" model and is a pacesetter for other similar ventures across the country as the print era rapidly fades out.
John Wilson
(P.S. I am blessed with a full stable of just such reporters right now, but if I have to start looking again, this will be the mantra.)