Exactly How Fun Is It To Be a Sports Journalist?

Sure. When's the last time you heard someone talk about the doomed Malaysian flight? Good thing it didn't interfere with the NCAA Tournament.

 

I think we’ll agree one must be wired a certain way to tackle the job after the initial romanticized fun wears off. The hours are long, there’s no such thing as downtime – what the hell is a vacation? – it’s rather stressful and you’re on the road a lot as a beat writer. But I must admit it’s always enjoyable when on the road after stories are filed to get together with the other beat writers for a cold one.

 

It's fun to be a sports writer. Well, not really. So get out now while you are still young.
Negatives that can't be overcome ...
-- Pay. Whatever salary you start at is about what you'll finish at until you get another job. You will either get no raise or 1 or 2 percent a year, plus 2 furloughs per year at my company. That means for 2 weeks a year you will not be paid while the corporate executives make millions.

-- Interference. There are way too many meetings you must attend that interfere with your schedule. Your immediate supervisors will not be able to get you out of these meetings. These meetings in which you have to drag yourself out of bed at 9 a.m. (when you have a 7 p.m. game to cover) will accomplish nothing except to frustrate you.

-- Work around the clock: Because of your newspaper website, you will post anything that happens on your beat as soon as it happens. That's after you first put it on another company's Website, one called Twitter. Even though you are on call 24 hours a day, you will not be paid overtime. You will work 40 hours and not a minute more, wink wink.

-- Stupidity you must put up with.Instead of concentrating on the games you cover, or news conferences you cover, you will have to tweet during such games/conferences. The tweeting is not even for your own company. It's for a company named Twitter. There is no proven value in this to your company, but you must do it anyway, and it will ruin the experience of watching the game.

In theory, sportswriting is very fun. In reality IT IS NOT. Get out.

 

None of the above.

 

Fredrick's a player hater from way back. He doesn't believe it can be another way, because he didn't see it.

 

I'm not disagreeing with Versatile or jr/shotglass. Frederick is a long time complainer but you have to admit, he does make some valid points that many along these threads can relate to.

 

Being a Sports Journalist, someone who covers interesting individuals and groups of individuals for mediums including online or broadcast, is great.

No matter what you end up doing, the important thing is to be decisive when it comes to your career. Whether that means pursuing a better Journalism opportunity, or an opportunity outside of Journalism, never hesitate to make the best choice for you and your future.

 

You know, it really chaps my hide when sports writers complain about working nights and weekends.

I have worked at papers as low as 10,000 and as high as 100,000+ circulation and the only ones who routinely work nights and weekends are the copy desks. At all my shops, newsside has had one reporter work nights on a rotating shift and the only time the sports reporters work nights is when covering a game. And at my last two shops, that's also been done on a rotating basis. Essentially, the reporters work nights maybe 1/5 of the year while the the copy folks do it five days a week (or more).

And even then, some folks in news get to rotate out of night works, as I lamented about earlier in the thread.

 

What day games do you cover? Are there high school and college kids being pulled out of school to play on a Tuesday afternoon, or do they have those games at night? How about NFL/NBA/NHL/MLS?

Maybe you work with Ray Barone, but most other writers spend a good chunk of their time working nights.

 

And ... I'm not saying ALL of the above isn't true. At some places.

But he has always stated it as if it's impossible for there to be a positive experience somewhere else.

 

Football season is a different animal but most of the writers I've worked go home at 5 p.m. and (barring breaking news) are done for the day three times for every one time they work at night. And I'm bitching about it because everyone forgets about the desk slaves chained to their chair until midnight.