Becoming a beat writer/columnist

No offense, but is this question representative of what college people want to know? Do they want it all laid out for them with pluses and minuses, ins and outs ups and downs before they start?
Like a balance sheet?
I've hired several in my time and until now have not been made aware of this level of insecurity

 

This column captures a lot of what I feel about my career, though I'm not nearly as deep into it as the writer.

http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=88917&section=sports

And on a side note, I can't believe anyone would eat roadside ribs.

Haven't you seen the Texas Chainsaw Massacre?

 

Here's the thing, and I can speak as a kid that was in your shoes a few years ago.

You will not get the choice to cover a beat when you get out of college (unless you are an f'n stud like Chris Snow) so don't worry about it. String and get on at the local paper for you tour in college to collect clips that might keep you out of the Under-2,500 circ. dungeon for your first your out of school. I wish I would have done that, then I wouldn't have used my first post on this message board to almost incite a riot in my direction.

Also, just go at it if you are at K-State. Football is a given, but I'm sure that is a plum that is passed from senior to senior until you are there. Hell, try to jump on the softball team and cover them. It's something, and you might get a taste of what a beat might be like.

Keep at it, and you will move up. I've been out of school about over two years now and I am just now getting to cover a professional team, and then only when they are at home and when I don't have something LOCAL going on.

Also remember that one key word, LOCAL. That is what everything is about now. It's all about the high school, local college and younger teams now, and the professional team down the road about 50 miles gets nothing in the paper. Unless you are at a major metro paper or at a paper in a metro area and work your way up, it is a treat to see a pro team.

But hey, I'm just a young writer too, and not as cynical as I might be in 20 years.

 

No softball at K-State. Rowing, women's tennis, equestrian, volleyball, men's and women's golf, baseball, men's and women's basketball, football. That's it I think. Football won't so much be the given anymore, either. Huggins reigns.

That said....go 90 miles east.

 

They don't have softball.... I'll be damned

 

"Branson? My dad says it's like Vegas - if it were run by Ned Flanders" </bart simpson>

 

Why does everybody assume this guy goes to Kansas State?

KSU could be anything. It could be an abbreviation. It could be Kent State.

This probably isn't a very good 1st post is it? 8)

 

Yeah. Keep throwing facts around like that and you'll go nowhere, TP.

 

what?

 

Could be Kennesaw State, right ... hello? ... Is this thing on?

 

Is anybody in there?