SEC Football Writers

We're paying $20 to $25, for your information, and anyone else's. And there's a likelihood we'll hire one or two freelancers full-time, at a higher salary than anyone would make covering prep sports. At a paper, you'll "report," and write one or two stories per day at some featureless function you hate.

What is it Malcolm Gladwell said about the 10,000 hours? At our site, you'll get tons of practice writing, and in front of an unforgiving SEC audience of hundreds of thousands every day. I'd invite you to take a look at any of the young writers we hired last summer and study their writing. Many of them got coaching several times per week and have made huge strides working with some good editors and other experienced journalists.

While we will hire some good young writers, it's almost a moot point. This position will and has attract veteran journalists with plenty of reporting experience, and those are the kinds of candidates who are getting first preference.

As far as job security, how many newspaper employees have been laid off in the last five years? How many jobs have vanished? Is that what you call job security?

 

"We don't do much actual reporting."

 

More power to you if you can make it work, I guess. But I am firmly of the opinion that young reporters need to learn how to report, not pontificate from their couch.

 

I applied for this position. The pay and expectations are more than reasonable for a part-time freelance job on the web. I think you can still learn a lot from newspapers but it depends where you work. Like Christopher was saying, how many places allow you to interview people like Dan Mullen? There is more than one way to skin a cat. We know going in that $25 an article won't change our lives but neither will working for $20,000 a year. If you believe in your skills, you're hoping this gig either leads to a full-time job with the site or something else. I don't see anything wrong with that on either end. I like the site and believe the upside is worth it if I'm selected.

 

Erstwhile young reporter here who spent years at daily newspapers doing all the things you were supposed to do. Covered everything from sub-varsity preps to the NFL. Did reasonably well. Got promoted. And yet, a little more than a decade later I earn a better income via freelancing (mostly from my couch) with positions like this one than I did running my own shop at a mid-size daily. I can count on two hands the times per year I now work after 10 p.m., and my weekends are, more often than not, my own.

My advice: If you want to be a reporter, go for it. It's a noble endeavor and we need good ones. But know now that you'll be fighting your way up the ranks working Waffle House hours and spending significant chunks of your life in two-star hotels. Eyes open, if you're good with that, then yes. You should avoid these types of freelance gigs because they won't open doors to real reporting jobs.

But if you just want to write and enjoy a little flexibility and can deal with the uncertainty that is a freelancer's lot, then what SDS is offering doesn't sound like a bad deal.

Don't run from anything except dogmatic advice from dudes on message boards.

 

Maybe you should get someone look over what you post. Every time you respond you keep digging yourself a bigger hole.

No "veteran journalist" is going to write for $15, $20, $25 maybe your next post will say $30, $35 dollars. Hell I covered high school games for $40 dollars for a weekly before. You should really stop posting, your investors aren't going to like you driving up the prices. If you are looking for a guy who left the business full-time but still freelances, I am sure in SEC Country they can find a newspaper that would at least offer triple what you are offering to spend a Saturday afternoon at a football game. That's for one story, not including the sidebar/game feature and/or a notebook in addition to the gamer.

Finally.

 

Thank you for your interest, sir.

I don't understand the inclination to knock something or someone that's capitalistic. If you don't want the opportunity, why take the time out of your own precious Saturday -- to go out of your way, really -- to be insulting?

I don't mind blunt philosophical disagreements, if they're respectful and not personal. I understand the newspaper mentality. I started my career as a newspaper reporter. But your accusations of pay inflation are bizarre and unfounded. And I don't mean this in an offensive way, but it seems classless to me to use the internet to call someone idiotic.

With all due respect, if it's purely about money, $40 at a high school game -- including travel, waiting around for coaches after games and writing -- may take 3.5 hours, and that's being very generous. The hourly rate at which you'd earn money covering a high school game for $40 is significantly smaller than what you'd get writing for us.

And, with all due respect, a typical "gamer" has little value to today's readers. They're usually quite aware of the facts and figures before the fourth quarter has ended, and many of the biggest fans watch press conferences live or on college websites.

Thankfully, we appear on course to hire several talented, experienced journalists for these positions. I'm pleased with the talent pool. It's a great time to be hiring in the digital world.

 

I do have a question, I am very much interested in this position and have experience sports writing and running my own sports site for going on four years. Plus, I watch a lot of football including SEC football but I do not have a favorite team that I follow. Would that disqualify me from applying?

 

It does not. We're moving forward on this pretty fast. If you still want to be considered, please follow the J-Jobs ad, but email me this weekend directly: csmith@saturdaydownsouth.com.

 

Thank you will do right now!

 

Regulars on this board would die laughing seeing my views on anything described as "dogmatic."

 

Taking your word for it, it's nice to hear that your opinions are typically regarded as more nuanced than those expressed here. Be careful on your way out west, DW.