Hiring standards for stringers for high school sports

My publisher has asked me for years to develop some stringers. I've found a few photographers that are great and do it just because they like to do it. One guy even won a state press association award for sports photo of the year for one he took for us.
But writers? Not so much.
My biggest thing is that my two biggest concerns are high barriers — can you get me relatively clean copy, and can you get it to me an hour after the game ended? I'm putting my job in their hands by entrusting them to get me a story before a very hard deadline. I always worry with people outside the building, and high school kids especially, that they don't grasp the gravity of that. They think tomorrow morning is fine and it's not.
In the same vein, I can call the coach and crank out a game story in 15 or 20 minutes. Time is precious. If I have to spend an extra 30 minutes waiting on them to send me a story, and then another 15 editing/rewriting it, it's not saving me any time and I might as well do it myself.
If they show me they can handle those two things, great. If they don't, then I really can't use them.

 

I started at 14, covering midget basketball for the small-town bi-weekly. The one thing the elderly sports editor said to me wasn't about my writing. He said, "You have to take typing in summer school. You can't give me stories longhand."

It was, of course, good advice. Six years later, during college, I was sports editor of that same paper.

 

When I was starting out, I was typing my story mid-innings at a prep playoff baseball game because of the deadline, and a full-time staffer from another paper (who went on to bigger and better things in the basketball market) said "You lazy fucker."

 

I think there are plenty of ex-journos out there, like myself, who could fill some of these stringer roles. Unfortunately, outlets have stopped paying or reduced pay enough to not make it worth our time.
I saw the writing on the wall, so to speak, and after 25 years in the biz transitioned from full time SE to part time in the evenings while I worked my new day job.
Family-owned paper, which we knew was struggling, sold out to Ogden. As a part-timer, my position was cut. The next fall they approached me about stringing some games for them. The rate was $25 per game and they would generously throw in another $15 for some photos and no mileage. That was their best offer. I essentially told them to to fuck themselves. I like sports, would have given them clean copy on deadline but my time and skill is worth more than $9 per hour. You get what you pay for.

 

As much as I've tried to explain the economics of it to a couple of different publishers, they still have our stringer rate at $25. Getting them to even pay someone $50 feels like pulling teeth, and I can only play that card once or twice a season. It's ridiculous. I've reached the point where I'd rather ask someone to do it as a personal favor than insult them with that low of an offer.

 

A decently bright high school kid should be able to compile stats for a full box score and if you feel ambitious compile some quotes. From there it shouldn’t be hard for a professional on desk to build out a meat and potatoes gamer and stick their byline on (or “reported by” shirttail or however you shop handles it.) If the publisher balks at that, remind them that the coach’s official stats may well be compiled by high schoolers too, especially in smaller sports.

 

What is this desk you speak of and who on it is gonna be writing the story I need for deadline that apparently my statistician stringer isnt writing?

 

have to disagree with that. seen some people whose copy was piss when they started and they ended up being pretty sucessful.

 

Who’s going to be editing some kid with a driver’s license so new the plastic has cooled down from the printing machine? Or were you just pasting raw copy onto the page and praying it didn’t end in disaster?

 

I left my full-time gig at the local newspaper in 2011. Went back in 2017-19 as a stringer for a couple weekly baseball/basketball/football games, and some other night work at the office, writing up 3-4 paragraphs on area games that were called in/emailed in by the coaches, etc., probably 15-20 hours a week, and a weekly OSU Olympic sports roundup. Most fun I ever had in the business. Got to hang out with guys I used to work with, made a little cash, had no responsibilities or worries once the shift ended, no dealing with parents.

Alas, they closed the local office, quit running prep roundups, so I bailed.

 

that’d be me. There’s no desk to read anything.

If I’m writing the story myself the coach can send me the box score I dont need to pay a stringer for that

 

The newspapers I still buy occasionally hire only college grads. Their copy is nowhere near what it was, even 10 years ago.
Of course both papers have shrunk in size, but the quality also has dropped substantially. Can't imagine a high school kid
could do much worse compared to some of the stuff I've read. Would bet some hs kids would do better.