About
I’m testing out the blogosphere here giving my two cents on the pressing and not-so pressing issues of the day, hopefully making observations and providing analysis that readers find interesting. This is definitely an experiment and work in progress.
I’m a Gen Xer who lives in Shoreline, Wash. and works as the assistant sports editor of The Enterprise Newspapers in Lynnwood, a 75,000 circulation group of weeklies that is a subsidiary of the Washington Post-owned Everett Herald. I am originally from the Portland, Ore. area. I graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash. in 1996 with a B.A. in Politics.
My areas of interest that I may comment on include politics, economics and class differences, race, American society and culture, and sports.
Here is my resume:
Tony Dondero
tdondero@gmail.com
Professional newspaper experience
The Enterprise. Lynnwood, Wash. Assistant sports editor. Combined weekly circulation of four papers: 75,000. Employed Sept. 2005-present.
• Write news, game stories, features and roundup items on prep, community college and community sports. Coverage area includes 11 high schools and two community colleges. Lay out the five or six tabloid-page Shoreline edition sports section. Coordinate assignments with staff photographer as well as freelance writers and photographers. Also copy edit.
The Arlington Times and The Marysville Globe newspapers. Arlington, Wash. and Marysville, Wash. Reporter/photographer. Combined weekly circulation of about 4,500. Employed from Aug. 2003-Sept. 2005.
• Wrote game stories, features and roundup items on prep sports at four high schools. Reported on education for three school districts. Also shot sports and news photos.
• Served as lead reporter for stories on a controversial proposal to build a NASCAR motor speedway in north Marysville. Traveled to Kansas City, Kan. to report on impact of the NASCAR track there.
• Initiated written proposals to upgrade technology and save money such as switching to digital SLR cameras to shoot sports photos.
Freelance writer. Jan. 2003-Aug. 2003.
• Wrote dozens of business and news stories and shot photos for The International Examiner, a twice-monthly Asian-American news journal based in Seattle’s International District. Also wrote for Colors Northwest magazine.
Eastside Journal (now King County Journal) Bellevue, Wash. Reporter. Daily and Sunday, circulation approx. 28,000. Employed from March 2000-Aug. 2002.
• Reporter for city desk from Oct. 2001-Aug. 2002. Worked night shift and reported breaking police and fire news, and wrote general assignment features and obituaries.
• Business reporter from March 2000-Oct. 2001. Wrote weekly column on Eastside retail scene and covered breaking news on Seattle-area companies. Wrote small business profiles, reported on real estate and economic trends. Worked on projects with other reporters.
The Union. Grass Valley, Calif. Business reporter. Daily Mon.-Sat., circulation, approx. 17,000. Employed from Jan. 1999-Dec. 1999.
• Mined business beat for stories in Nevada County for local news section and Monday business section. Coverage included small and large technology companies, homegrown broadcast video industry, agriculture, logging and mining. Also covered civil court cases.
McMinnville News-Register. McMinnville, Ore. Sports reporter. Published three times a week, circulation approx. 10,000. Employed from July 1997-Oct. 1998.
• Wrote game stories, features and columns on prep sports at six high schools and Linfield College from Oct. 1997-Oct. 1998. Responsible for posting stories, scores, standings and schedules on Web site.
• As a news clerk from July 1997 to Oct. 1997 wrote features, arts and entertainment stories, business profiles, compiled briefs for community section and posted breaking news stories on Web site.
Portland Business Journal. Portland, Ore. Intern. Weekly, 20,000 circulation. Employed from Jan.-May 1997.
• Wrote profiles on small businesses imparting lessons learned by entrepreneurs. Researched bankruptcies. Compiled items for and laid out people section.
Forest Grove News-Times. Forest Grove, Ore. Intern. Weekly. 5,000 circulation.
Employed from Dec. 1996-April 1997.
• Wrote news and sports stories, obituaries and news briefs and assisted in production.
Statesman Journal. Salem, Ore. Reporter intern. Daily, 64,000 circulation. May-Aug. 1993.
• General assignment reporter for city desk. Wrote features on community festivals and events. Filled in on cops, education, environment and politics beats.
Newspaper Awards/Honors
•2006. Won second-place honors in all circulation categories in Washington Newspaper Publishers Association’s sportswriter’s portfolio competition. Won second place for best sports section from WNPA in largest circulation category. Received second-place award in sports reporting from Society of Professional Journalists, Western Washington Pro Chapter.
• 2005. Named Sportswriter of the Year by the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association (all circulation categories). Won 10 2005 WNPA Better Newspaper Contest awards including first-place honors for best education story, best comprehensive coverage (news), best sports reporting, best sports feature and best sports section. Received honorable mention award for sportswriting from Society of Professional Journalists, Western Washington Pro Chapter.
• 2004. Received first-place honors for best sports news story in WNPA contest. Contributed to sports sections that received first- and second-place honors.
• 2001. Won first-place C.B. Blethen Memorial Award and first-place Society of Professional Journalists Region X award for investigative reporting, for “The Con Man Vanishes,” a series that revealed the tangled tale of a con man and identity thief.
• August 1999. Selected to participate as a fellow for a Foundation of American Communications institute on economics for journalists. Learned practical applications of economic concepts and how they might be applied to stories.
• 1998. Earned first place honors in sports news reporting in the Society of Professional Journalists Willamette Chapter contest and in the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Better Newspapers Contest for multi-weeklies for series called “The Money Game” that described how high school sports in Oregon were financed.
Education: B.A. Politics Whitman College, Walla Walla, Wash., 1996.
Additional skills
• Computer skills: Macintosh and PC literate. Type about 40 words a minute. Use Quark X Press, Microsoft Word and NewsEditPro. Proficient in Excel. Also familiar with some Web page software and Photoshop.
• Photography: Have shot sports and spot news photos with Nikon N75 film camera, Nikon D70 digital camera and other digital cameras.
• Management/leadership skills. Was co-editor-in-chief of college newspaper as a junior and previously worked as a news editor, opinions editor and columnist. As editor, hired staff, managed budget, wrote editorials, edited copy, dummied pages, assigned stories. Served as public relations officer in Asian-American student group.
• Language. Communicated in Spanish with Hispanic workers at various agricultural summer jobs during high school and college. Have taken up to second-year level college Spanish and can speak and read some but not fluent. Served as English as a Second Language tutor for native Spanish speakers at Centro Cultural in Cornelius, Ore. Researched issues that pertained to Hispanic community in Walla Walla, Wash. and evaluated role of Cesar Chavez and others in Chicano Movement in senior thesis for politics major.
