Writer for Buccaneers.com

actually i take that back. there is more than enough desperation among guys at small dailies right now for someone to do it.

 

This thing isn't going to a stud. Even effin' studs, though still green about the business, are smart enough to stay away from this gig.

No sports editor who runs a deptartment with actual NFL reporters would hire the dolt who takes this job. Did you read the ad? It says you'll work with the PR side of the franchise. Now that's impartial!

You can kiss your journalism career goodbye.

 

24k would have been a raise at my first couple of jobs, as well. And I know more than a few people who have gone from journalism to PR and back, jambalaya --- when it comes right down to it, if you have the credentials and references to prove you can be an impartial, hardworking, skeptical and fair journalist, the fact that you "lowered" yourself to a PR job won't be held against you.

 

I'd guess that I'm able to provide a little more insight on a position like this than most people who've replied thus far.

I don't know who runs the Bucs web site, or what the organization's philosophy when it comes to a position like this, but I wrote for a team's web site and its sister publication for five seasons, and the experience was invaluable.

First, let me make it clear: it isn't journalism. I wasn't out there calling agents and digging up dirt. I didn't break hard news. That wasn't my job, and if you get this job, it won't be your job either.

Still, the experience was an incredible one, and it did a lot for my eventual full-time career in sports writing.

I was fortunate to work for an ex-newspaper guy who really wanted to kick ass with both the site and the magazine. I wasn't in the P.R. department typing up press releases and posting them on the web site. I was at every training camp two-a-day, every press conference, every open locker room, every practice, every game, with all the other reporters.

The biggest advantage this provided was simply being around. Osmosis is a great professor. Watching guys work the locker room, listening to their questions, looking at the angles that the columnists were taking. Just being in a professional environment, being around other reporters, talking to other reporters, developing relationships with them, covering an NFC Championship game amidst an orgy of national media: the benefit of a position like this is it will expose you to situations that someone with your experience has no business being exposed to.

Again, you don't have the same job as Rick Stroud, but you can learn a hell of a lot just by being around guys like him, and being exposed to the same situations that guys like him are exposed to on the beat.

It also really helped me work on my writing since I was writing an ass load of copy. There are no space limitations on the internet.

Writing wise, perhaps the biggest benefit came in deadline writing. You simply aren't going to get any better experience at deadline writing than a Monday night football game on the road.

Again, I'm a big believer in osmosis. The more you do it, the more you are around it, the better you become. And a job like this can provide you with that opportunity.

Another benefit is that a job like this can show you a side of sports that those on the "outside" rarely get to see. I loved watching a professional sports organization operate from the inside out. Riding on the team charter, staying in the team hotel, eating in the team cafeteria at training camp: it was just interesting to see it all go down.

And, hell, it was fun.

Granted, I was in high school and college when I was doing all of this. And the whole time I was stringing and working part-time for actual newspapers as well. And by the time I graduated college, I knew I wanted a career in legitimate journalism (which, again, a position like this isn't).

For the right person, though, a position like this can be beneficial.

 

The gig is fine. You'll make money. you'll see NFL football. You won't have to worry about being scooped. GO FOR IT!

 

1. It was the Bengals who hired away a daily beat writer for their web site.

2. In much of today's newspaper market, even in some major league cities, we're kidding ourselves if we think what they're doing is all journalism. In a lot of markets, you'll see the sports pages and even more so the front pages cheerleading for the teams as much as looking for hard news. Those publications are the only print game in town, and they know if they're not leading the cheers the TV and radio stations will be.

 

sad but true, bump. i guess that's what happens when most markets don't have competition anymore.

 

The Browns also hired away a beat writer to come work for their Web site, though he resigned and went back to the newspaper after just a year on the job.

 

Anyone hear anything about this?