Not All Help-wanted Ads Are Created Equal

By: Randy Dotinga Last week, this column looked at what online job banks can do for newspaper employees. Those same Web sites can do wonders for recruiters, but only if they take the time to learn how to use them effectively.

Here are some tips for attracting the best candidate for your opening, whether it be for a reporter, classified ad rep, or janitor.

* Think Beyond Yourself: It's not all about you and your newspaper's needs.

People who enter the world of online dating know that the least popular personal ads are often the most self-centered -- "I'm looking for someone to complete me," they say. Or "I want a blue-eyed blonde who can help me reach my goals."

Bad move. Few people will respond to those ads, which offer next to nothing to the reader. Help-wanted ads often suffer from the same problem, according to experts.

"What you very often see in a help-wanted ad is a description of the position, which is usually what the candidate will do for the company, and also the requirements, which are the skills that the candidate must have," said Steven Rothberg, president and founder of Minneapolis-based CollegeRecruiter.com, which helps connect graduates and employers. "Most of the time, nowhere is there any information about why the candidate should apply for this job, rather than a similar one with the employer across the street."

Some employers tout their "competitive" or "excellent" salaries and benefits, but candidates generally figure those are offered, Rothberg added. "It's more important to communicate to them what they might not assume: that you have flex time, that you have casual Fridays every day, that you can bring your dog to work -- the unusual perks that really make work much more enjoyable. On-site day care, tuition reimbursement -- these are things that are out there, but people don't assume they're going to get them."

The particular strengths of a newspaper -- it has won awards, it has a gym, it's rated as a best place to work -- should go into a template to be used for all help-wanted ads, suggested Tony Lee, editor in chief of CareerJournal.com, a content partner with E&P Online's Career Center.

* Sell Your Town: Play up the strengths of the community, but don't go overboard.

Even with the economy in a slump, job banks are bursting with openings, many of them at small- to mid-sized newspapers. Make your paper stand out by describing the region, especially if future applicants may not know about it. What's there to do in Dayton? Or Tallahassee? How's the housing or apartment market? The commute? If the weather is great, say so. If it snows, maybe mention the great skiing.

If something about the circulation area is less than brag-worthy, however, you may save a lot of time by being up front about it. There's no good reason for the applicants to learn the bad news on their own, maybe after you already flew them out for an interview.

The Santa Cruz (Calif.) Sentinel, for example, makes no secret of the fact that the median home price in the county is $475,000. (That's not a misprint.)

"The main thing we try to do is describe with as much reality as we can what the situation is," said Managing Editor Don Miller. "We're in a horrible housing market."

*Target Your Ads: use them as a diversity tool.

If you need to diversify your newsroom staff, take advantage of the various job boards of journalism associations for women, blacks, Asian Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and gays and lesbians.

For extra impact, it's a good idea to fine-tune your help-wanted ads geared toward minorities, said David Yarnold, editor and senior vice president of the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News and chair of the diversity committee of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

"People aren't creative enough in those ads on those job boards, and they don't sell their visions of diversity very well," he said. "Say you're in the middle of a mostly white community in the Midwest and you don't have any people of color, how do you write that ad? There's a positive spin -- 'We're a newspaper that's looking to diversify an all-white staff, we need help figuring this out, and we need someone who's willing to help show us the way.'"

Bosses must avoid coming across as tacky or heavy-handed during the wooing process, Yarnold cautioned. He still remembers applying at a newspaper in Kentucky years ago and being driven around the city until an editor finally reached his destination -- a Jewish community center.

The editor wanted to show Yarnold, who is Jewish, that he wouldn't be alone in town. "I was not impressed," he said. "It did not have the desired effect."

Another attempt to spotlight the city's diversity -- a deadly serious mention of a "new Mexican restaurant" known as Taco Bell -- didn't help either.

* Be Honest: keep your ads truthful.

"We try to sell the quality of the newspaper and not lie about it," said Miller of the Santa Cruz Sentinel. "People obviously look at your newspaper online. If you're some overly corporate podunk newspaper that's not doing decent work, and you try to say you are, that will boomerang in your face."

Remember too that liars attract. "It works both ways," Miller said. "Hopefully we're not getting candidates who are playing that same game."