For $40.....

Minor league sports coverage these days is pathetic. The local paper in my market hasn’t covered a road baseball or hockey game since pre-pandemic. And the teams’ website writeups leave a lot to be desired.

 

We're doing away with big written recaps of our association events because papers have stopped running even a brief on our championships. We also did some analytics on how much those stories were being read on our website and ... ugh. I enjoy writing, but it's clear my time is better spent on photography, social media and quick-hit video these days. Frees me up to do better work with our magazine, which does still get plenty of readers. The exceptions will be coverage of our three "major" events (men's and women's am and the State Open).

 

Photography can still be a decent freelance niche. A lot of Group of 5 and FCS schools (and even some further away majors) don’t send shooters to away games, so a college buddy of mine built up his book of business selling pictures to the Western Carolinas and New Mexico States of the world, then having lots of extras of the SEC team for Getty and the preseason preview mags. Now he does PGA tournaments within driving distance, media days and conference tournaments for regional D-II leagues and the SWAC and all sorts of other stuff. And he was a geography major in college!

 

Back in the mid-2000s, there was a guy in Illinois who figured out that newspapers no longer were sending photogs to state wrestling, track, or other “minor” high school championships. He’d shoot quality photos of each event’s final heat or medal match and post them to a website, where newspapers who had an account with him could preview, then buy/download photos.

The guy had all that set up in 2005 or so and made quite a bit of money for one long day of work.

 

I have a situation...

I've been at my shop for 8 years, but the last 2 years I've transitioned from my primary responsibility being sports desk work to largely doing layout work for sister papers on the news side and occasionally layout on our sports side. A startup sports publication has contacted me recently about doing some freelance writing that would include features and some game recaps (nothing in-person). Do I owe anything to my current shop in terms of also giving them my copy? Should I inform them of my freelance work before I start? There is 100% crossover, as all teams I'll be responsible for covering are in my shop's coverage area.

 

You should probably check with your current shop to see what their policies are. I can’t imagine that this situation works out in your favor.

 

Honestly I would expect an ass chewing and maybe more for even bringing it up. That’s a blatant conflict of interest if you are on the regular payroll.

 

Yeah, keep this to yourself and pretend it never happened.

 

You absolutely do not owe your shop any content you produce on your own time. It sounds as if you are no longer involved with sports coverage, so there should be no conflict of interest in taking on sports freelance assignments.

That said, I'd get an OK to be sure.

 

This is where I’m at with the situation. I also was recently passed over for the sports editor position despite my years of service to the company. So frankly I’m not sure I owe them much of anything in terms of sports coverage.

 

I think we need more information. Is this a competitor to your full-time gig?

If so, and you go in with the attitude that you got passed over for the SE job so you don't owe them anything, then I don't see it ending well for you.

 

Are you prepared to lose your job over this? If you've already done some work for the other company, that is. Even if it isn't your beat anymore, I think it's reasonable for a newspaper to expect you to not provide sports stringer coverage for a competitor.