Job opps: Freelancing for SF Business Times

Here's one from Emily Fancher, senior editor at the San Francisco Business Times:

The award-winning San Francisco Business Times is seeking freelancers to write news and feature articles about Bay Area business. We primarily use freelancers for our focus sections and special publications. Topics include real estate, hospitality, biotech, law, finance, philanthropy, health-care and technology.

We're looking for sharp, motivated and organized individuals who hit deadlines and work well independently. You should have extensive journalism experience, but a business background is not essential.

We¹re a team of 15 reporters, editors and researchers in downtown San Francisco who work on a weekly publication that won the CNPA's General Excellence Award in 2006.

Please send a resume and five clips to:

Emily Fancher
Senior Editor
San Francisco Business Times
275 Battery St. Ste. 940
San Francisco, CA 94111

Or e-mail efancher@bizjournals.com

Job opps: editors, reporter in Boston

Here's another contribution from former Chronicle reporter Todd Wallack:

If anyone feels like moving to Beantown, a bunch of jobs have opened up.

The Boston Business Journal is looking for both a special sections editor and a reporter (probably to cover higher education and legal affairs, though I think the editor might be flexible). Editor George Donnelly, (617) 316-3221, gdonnelly@bizjournals.com

Meanwhile, I heard the Boston Globe is desperately trying to find good editors in multiple sections of the paper. The recruiter at the paper is Paula Bouknight, p_bouknight@globe.com.

Consider SFSU's paralegal program

This is from Chron home & garden writer Susan Fornoff:

Journalists who've had enough of this crazy business and want to retrain for a career where they will be increasingly in demand and increasingly well compensated might want to consider the ABA-approved S.F. State paralegal program, which perhaps might qualify under the federal retraining program described earlier in the blog.

The certificate requires 30 credits, generally 10 courses, and with the program running on a trimester system, it's certainly possible to complete them within one year. I attended two evenings a week for five semesters at the downtown campus and received my certificate in the spring of 2005, finding the experience rewarding and invigorating -- smart teachers and students, practical courses, an excellent program focused on civil litigation, with electives in real estate, family, patent, criminal, contract and other specialties of law.

How come I didn't actually become a paralegal, you ask? I have other applications in mind for the certificate, which would include more writing/research/interviewing and less, er, cow-towing to attorneys. The skills we've learned in journalism translate easily into success in the field, however — and though one may take a paycut while collecting experience, it will not be uncommon for a skilled and experienced paralegal to someday earn six figures in the right line of work; there are too many lawyers and not enough paralegals.

Job opps: Reporters for SF Daily Journal

This is from Peter Blumberg, editor at the San Francisco Daily Journal:

The San Francisco Daily Journal, a legal affairs newspaper, has full-time openings for reporters. Contact Peter Blumberg, Editor, for more information at 44 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA 94104.