Taylor (Your Version)

September 13, 2023 4:42 AM

At least 5 years of experience required.
posted by jacquilynne (29 comments total)

I can think of far, far worse entertainment gigs to work on than the TSwift beat.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:59 AM on September 13, 2023 [11 favorites]

This is one of those jobs where you can meet none of the requirements and yet still want to apply, just in case. And I am not even that big of a TSwift fan.

The last time I felt this way about a job, it was for the head curator position at the Textile Museum in Toronto.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:50 AM on September 13, 2023 [3 favorites]

Why exactly the hell would one put their resume and a “video cover letter” in a single PDF? (and I ask this as a person who literally spends a huge part of my time at work making things into PDFs). What kind of sick criminal would require that you do this for an application?

Seriously, PDF is not for video. If it were, it would be called PVF for fucks sake.

The resume needs to be 2 pages or less, but they didn’t specify any length for the video. I hope someone abuses that loophole.
posted by caution live frogs at 5:59 AM on September 13, 2023 [5 favorites]

We may have no idea what's happening in small market city and county governments anymore but at least we'll be up to date on every wardrobe change on the Eras Tour
posted by dis_integration at 6:07 AM on September 13, 2023 [17 favorites]

Given the number of Swift* articles I've seen in the past few months, it kind of feels like that's already happening. I don't actually care How You Learned to Love Taylor Swift or Why Everybody Loves Taylor Swift, and Nobody Can Stop Talking About Taylor Swift is a self-created reality...

* not one of them satiric!
posted by trig at 6:41 AM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

It's interesting that this job seems to be publicly posted as opposed to only internally. Presumably they have lots of qualified journalists that they've already hired who would kill for this beat. Yet, they go searching outside of their own workforce.

It's you, hi, you're the problem, it's you.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:25 AM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

The video cover letter bit is that part that really ticks me off (yes, putting it in a PDF is stupid especially since there are often size limitations on the PDFs that can be uploaded, but that's another rant for another day).

I'm seeing more and more job ads that want a resume and a cover letter but also a video submitted by the applicant. Usually there are requirements that the video be a certain length, that the applicant answer a bunch of questions, and that the applicant also show creativity, out-of-the-box thinking, etc.

Sure, let's add an extra burden on the job hunter, let's give corporations another tool to quietly and easily discriminate against people (because I'll bet you that the people watching the videos will be looking for "culture fit" and weeding out people based on things like gender or age or race or disability.
posted by sardonyx at 7:26 AM on September 13, 2023 [3 favorites]

This position should have been for a Beyoncé reporter...

(sorry)

Yeah, so not suprised it’s come to this. I have made the mistake of googling about Taylor Swift a couple of times and now my discovery feed on the mobile, my feed on twitter, my stupid youtube homepage is just full of Taylor Swift content and I can’t turn it off.

(insert good_for_her.gif)

Also, I am decidedly not a fan, I have barely voluntarily listened to her music, and I know EVERYTHING about who she’s supposedly dating now, who she was supposedly dating two months ago, and who she was officially dating one, two, three, four etc. and fifteen years ago. I hope her dating life is not going to be a part of the intended scope for this reporter position but I fear it will. I don’t envy her for that.
posted by bitteschoen at 7:33 AM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

I do not envy the person who has / gets to go through the applications and decide on the candidates to interview (after the robot overlords have their say). What’s the proper metric of Swiftie-to-Woodward Stan balance here?
posted by Mchelly at 8:04 AM on September 13, 2023

We only want coverage if it’s torture
Don’t say I didn’t, say i didn’t warn ya
posted by armoir from antproof case at 8:19 AM on September 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

The video cover letter bit is that part that really ticks me off

They're looking for an 'experienced, video-forward journalist', so I think that including a video is more relevant here than it would be for most jobs.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:38 AM on September 13, 2023 [4 favorites]

Not really. Yes, they're looking for a video-forward journalist "with a voice — but not a bias" but producing that kind of journalism is not the same thing doing a video cover letter. What a news outfit posting similar jobs would typically ask for is samples of the journalist's work--work that demonstrates the ability to shoot news, write a script "with a voice, not a bias", interview people etc.
posted by sardonyx at 8:46 AM on September 13, 2023

And uh that salary range..? Is it just me, or is $20 - $50 an hour insultingly low?
posted by ZakDaddy at 8:50 AM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

$20 is insulting. $50 is a pretty good salary. The range between them is ridiculous.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:12 AM on September 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

This reminds me of the job posts that you see every once in a long while to be the archivist for a particular group or organization that has made a large cultural impact and had the money, good luck, or foresight to create or make possible a large collection of materials. For example, I seem to remember many years ago when the University of California, Santa Cruz was hiring an archivist for their Grateful Dead collection. If this kind of job pays well enough, it could be a real dream job for someone and I am very jealous if that is the case.
posted by ElKevbo at 9:20 AM on September 13, 2023

This position should have been for a Beyoncé reporter...

You missed a golden opportunity to begin this response with "Imma let you finish, but..."
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 9:57 AM on September 13, 2023 [10 favorites]

Also, I am decidedly not a fan, I have barely voluntarily listened to her music,

Please do go on. What the world needs more of are people's opinions on items they admit they know little about.
posted by waving at 10:11 AM on September 13, 2023 [11 favorites]

missed heading: It's me, I'm the prospect. It's me.
posted by k3ninho at 10:42 AM on September 13, 2023 [3 favorites]

waving, no need to get snarky, that was not an opinion it was a simple observation about the overwhelming presence of news and content about Swift at the moment, even without seeking it out deliberately, and I'm not even in the US. (Her tour is coming here next year and the amount content about her in local media has skyrocketed. I can't imagine how much crazier it can get by next year.)
Also, "not a fan" is meant literally and neutrally, I don't dislike her, in fact I do respect the obvious talent, I just don't actively listen to her. So that was just a way to emphasize that even without actively looking to engage with online content about her, I do, on a daily basis, there's no escaping it, even without dedicated reporters...
posted by bitteschoen at 10:53 AM on September 13, 2023

I also thought it was quite choice of them to say "you can work from nearly anywhere at all, specifically excepting our headquarters", because why would their CEO want to work where their employees work
posted by caution live frogs at 11:30 AM on September 13, 2023

Lol I swear I hadn't seen this yet when I jokingly mentioned Beyoncé: guess what, they're ALSO looking for a Beyoncé Knowles-Carter reporter
posted by bitteschoen at 11:39 AM on September 13, 2023 [5 favorites]

I also thought it was quite choice of them to say "you can work from nearly anywhere at all, specifically excepting our headquarters", because why would their CEO want to work where their employees work

I don't think that's what they mean to say there -- I think they mean 'remote except Alaska and Hawaii' or 'non-remote at our headquarters'.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:47 AM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Are they hiring anyone to evaluate the people tryna get hired? Cause I'm pretty interested in seeing those applications.

(btw I'm also interested in receiving $30/hr)
posted by Baethan at 12:02 PM on September 13, 2023

I’m glad celebrities exist, and I like Taylor Swift though I don’t listen to her music, but the idea of working closely with one on a daily basis makes my skin crawl for some reason.
posted by jamjam at 12:47 PM on September 13, 2023

The top 5 applicants are subjected to a Willy Wonka style evaluation of their worthiness to follow Taylor Swift, eliminating each one along the way, leading to the one person who seemed least likely to be chosen to have Taylor Swift appear before them, descending from the clouds on angel wings, to confirm that she thinks they're the most likely to write fluff pieces least likely to offend Swift's marketing team
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:57 PM on September 13, 2023 [4 favorites]

They missed a golden opportunity to make this a TV show competition like American Idol or the Apprentice, a whole season of competing for a journalistic gig with increasingly fierce and unethical challenges. Celebrity judges of course.
posted by spitbull at 6:28 PM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Do they require an essay on the things Swift hides in her videos to hint she might be bisexual?
posted by Jacen at 8:28 PM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

I don't see any hits for "Ukraine" on Gannett's job req site, but I guess it's dangerous for members of the press to go to a conflict zone with that colorful weather map printed on their helmets
posted by credulous at 8:14 AM on September 14, 2023

Do they require an essay on the things Swift hides in her videos to hint she might be bisexual?

It's 2023 and she's the biggest pop star in the world. She can date whomever she wants without repercussions. IMO she's more like a corporation now, being sure to appeal to as many fans as possible and paper over her past lyrics . But then again, she's human, and maybe the now her is the real her and the past one was playing to her country fans' expectations. Who could ever know, except her?
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:46 PM on September 14, 2023 [1 favorite]