ESPN reportedly hiring beat writers for all 32 teams

I can't imagine its actually 32 new positions.....they already have Mike Reiss for the Patriots and probably someone similar with the other regional sites as mentioned before (NY, Chicago, Dallas?).

Still 25 new positions is pretty big.

 

The Bears have Michael C. Wright.

 

They play baseball and football in September. If they were serious about this, they would have one for each.

And this is a huge salvo against CBSsports and all the others.

 

And when half of the current SC is devoted to the NBA Finals, you pretty much know where MLB's coverage has gone. I may give Fox Sports a try when it debuts. Either that or just switch to MLB Network.

 

I'd be STUNNED if these jobs offered benefits, MizzouGrad96. That's not the way ESPN rolls.

 

College bloggers are getting 80k to 100k with no benefits. Based on how much ESPN requires of those folks - it's year-round cranking - it's a gig that won't make you rich but it will make you tired.

 

Have there been any job postings put up for these openings?

 

I heard 19 new hires, since 13 will be the divisional bloggers and the already-existing sites in Boston, Dallas, Chicago, NY, LA.

 

Jason Wilde covers the Packers for the Milwaukee ESPN radio station's website. Does he just keep doing what he's doing? Does he get more money? If ESPN.com hires him, does he stop working for the radio station and its website. Or does ESPN.com hire someone else who then competes with the local ESPN radio station and its website? A lot of interesting things to shake out in the next month or so.

 

I know a couple people who interviewed -- positions are on a contract basis WITH benefits.
Also as someone earlier said, it is for 19 spots since the regionals and division bloggers are already on board.

 

Absolutely. What else could ESPN do on such brisk notice? Find prospects to develop? I'm not of the belief that ESPN's newspaper poach has generally paid that great of dividends, either, in departments below the magazine/longform folks, who've been selected with evident great care. A lot of the column work at ESPN is a bore. Many of the bloggers -- college or pro -- are workmanlike, but not distinctive.

And it's not nuts - it's ESPN. It fully expects to have most Americans (by way of all cable/satellite companies) over a barrel on cable fees whether those Americans want ESPN or not. And those fees, when all added up, are fierce.

What interests me is how ESPN is selects these folks without advertising the jobs anywhere. I suppose its EEOC compliant if you just never tell anyone the job is open, but this complaint about "How the hell do you write for ESPN?" has come back to me through others several times. The "how the hell do you write for Grantland?" has come up, too. Clearly, these jobs exist. Clearly, they're interviewing for them. Why doesn't a job listing exist?

Perhaps the many ESPN writers on this board will explain.

 

Nothing about this makes any sense... The ESPN Chicago and ESPN Dallas and ESPN Boston stuff makes sense, this does not.

This is the way the benefits question was answered. Apparently, this is similar to how Yahoo does it for "full-time freelancers" or whatever you want to call them. You do not get benefits directly through the company, but the company gets you a discounted rate on benefits that would be the same as the way most of us get it through our employers, where you pay a certain amount a month... That's how the bloggers at ESPN get their benefits, or at least how the two I'm friends with do. I had it explained to me when I interviewed for a NFL blogger job several years ago, but I would be lying if I said I was paying close attention...