Writer to cover Notre Dame sports

Does being a "contributor" qualify as a job though? The impression I get from my previous experience with Scout.com sites is that you would be helping the publisher out -- not something you could call a steady job.

 

Why wouldn't you call it a job? I get paid for my work. In my three years as a contributor I've done a lot of things that I never would've been able to do with my full-time newspaper gig.

Don't sell yourself short.

 

I emailed a few sites within scout.com that cover professional baseball teams and all they had to offer me were "unpaid internships." Not bad for me because I'd like to get some experience and covering a professional team would be sweet.

I just have a hard time understanding how this site can pay 30k.

 

I worked a job similar to this for a year. It has its good aspects and its drawbacks. I felt like I gained some experience that will really help if and when I take over a major beat a paper, but I didn't get to do a lot of enterprise work or real investigative reporting either. I wrote a ton of player profile-type features for the mag and breaking news/game coverage for the Web.

I missed working at a newspaper, but the way the industry is heading these kind of sites and specialty mags might be where the jobs are in a few years. These kind of operations can be good if you have solid journalists working there, they can be horrible if it's just some fan running the thing.

As far as what they can pay, it depends on the school-company. Running a set up like this for Michigan or Notre Dame, which have huge fan bases, can be profitable. Trying to do the same thing for Wake Forest or Seton Hall can be a struggle.

In my case I worked for a publishing company that produced magazines covering four schools in three different time zones. My boss also contracted with Rivals.com to provide content for Web sites associated with those schools. My paycheck came from the publishing company, not Rivals.

 

Ha, well played SilvioDante

 

Thanks.

Some people have absolutely no shame. Hopefully we'll get even more first-time posters before this hire is made, giving their testimonials to this fabulous Web site that, by the way, they have nothing to do with.

 

My guess is that a number of these guys were already here under different names. Certainly wouldn't be the first time fluff (or rip) jobs come w/in someone's first couple posts.

That said, someone asked how some of these sites can afford to pay 30k a year. Well, especially at a school like Notre Dame (or Florida, or USC) you have a nationwide group of people who are fans of the school and pay for registration.
A friend of mine recently took a job at a site like this covering another school, and while he isn't making a ton of money on the front end considering where he's living, he is also set to earn incentives as the subscriber list grows.
Also, compare the overhead of an online pub to that of a print one. Big difference. There could also be some differences regarding benefits, etc. Just a few thoughts.

 

Did that. Nobody cared. It's really an uphill battle taking this job. I broke a lot of big news in the area during my stop at the site, but that just meant that those who wrote for the papers took the news and never attribued it because, of course, it was "The Internet."

Anyone who wants knowledge of these types of joints - not this one specifically - and how they run, work, get paid, can PM me.

 

Any word on this one?