The Athletic keeps growing .......

THIS. If you are bound and determined to try and stake your claim as the next big thing in this business, by all means, give it your best shot. There are great jobs for great people available out there if you battle and claw, know your stuff and network. BUT ... prepare for possible disappointment and starvation. Know when to say when, as it were.

There are a number of lawyers, doctors, engineers and actuarials in well-paid jobs who love stringing a high school football game on Friday nights or running the board on the weekends at a major market radio station -- as their hobby.

 

Automation has also wiped out the vast majority of the entry-level production jobs. I have no idea what the number would be now, but I suspect it's longer simply because the "easier" jobs have disappeared.

To put that into perspective, 15 years ago my newscast would involved a producer, a director, a technical director, a chyron operator, a camera operator, a floor director, an audio person, a tape operator and a TelePrompter operator. That was close to bare minimum behind the scenes for a live broadcast.

Today? Producer, director, TelePrompter operator. And some shops eliminated the Prompter operator. (And in my shop the Prompter operator is a director from another show, so it's far from entry-level.)

 

Does the Athletic stoop so low as to make their reporters shoot video? It's funny to watch the suits boss their sports writers around. They have no control over the photo department. I have a buddy who is a photographer and it takes her about four times as long as a sports writer to turn in a video because she is trying to make it good and not just slop something together. One gets the feeling the suits would rather have their sports writers shoot some awful videos after games that no one watches rather than wait for a video four hours from a qualified photographer, lol. If the suits only knew how their reporters are mocked for having to do so many things at an MLB game or NFL game rather than just cover it expertly.

 

The Athletic does not feature video or place a high priority on photography. Most of the photos on the site are wire service photos, since the Athletic is covering pro and major college sports.

Some writers incorporate video into their stories for film review or to showcase a particular play they're writing about, but that's it. The Athletic writers just write. Seems like the only other demand is social media presence, which is standard (and should be) in the industry.

 

Great stuff! Feels like I've lived so much of it.

 

There are 19-year-olds working weekends at WFCK, running the board for free so they can host a 15-minute public affairs show that airs at 5:30 on a Sunday morning. It’ll always be that way.

 

I would argue from routine postgame pressers or casual media availabilities, "professional quality" video is not important. The content does not have a great shelf life. It's a way to augment coverage -- what this person said about what just happened or what will happen next. It should go up fast, be consumed by the niche that wants to watch press conference videos (after they watch the ad at the beginning, or else there's really no point) and then be forgotten.

 

I shot video when I worked at Patch, it was a significant addition to my resume. I made sure to make friends with local HS coaches, who then allowed me into their huddles. Great, emotional footage.

 

Free for 90 days:

 

Dead link. What was it?