Getting out ... just to get out

Mizzou, you get used to it. Just like you got used to running around the track trying to find the names of the winning relay team, or having a player fart with a bunch of reporters around him, its just part of the business.

 

I don't mean to say that working under deadline pressure isn't a valuable skill, just that what you consider to be a benefit, someone else may not, and that what you see one way, someone else may see another. But if you truly are a deadline-driven person, then you're liable to get bored working somewhere without that anyway.

 

No question. Battling the clock has always been a rush for me. Others don't feel that way.

 

Fucking on the clock has always been a rush for me.

 

I'm not necessarily so plugged into the deadline rush, but I multitask constantly. I interviewed for a sports media position a few years ago where the editor who would be my boss said he'd like to hire me, but I would be bored to tears within three months and quit within six. I believe his exact words were, "You'll carve your eyes out with a rusty spoon." I admired his honesty... but I'm pretty sure he's been laid off since then, so perhaps not everyone did.

I've never had anyone (aside from one cynical former colleague who jumped from sports to news of his own volition) say sportswriting doesn't bring pressure. However, potential future employers seem to believe sportswriters only know about sports -- and thus won't consider them for non-sports positions even if all the other job criteria line up.

To become more marketable, I have been encouraged to either freelance outside of sports or crossover and do more non-sports stories for my current paper.

Oddly, the reason I became a sportswriter in the first place was that I found the stuff I was assigned to cover as a college freshman to be mundane and uninteresting. Why would I want to voluntarily go back to that?

 

A lot of editors can write, too, after spending years rewriting ledes and writing heds and cuts. But I don't have any clips that aren't years old, and that makes it tough when I'm going after writing jobs outside journalism, such as copywriting and social media. Plenty of managers outside newspapers don't even know what an editor is.

I can sell it in the interviews, but the trick is getting the interviews. I'll take my chances for a while, then maybe do some freelance writing to build clips. But I'd rather just talk my way into a writing job based on my years of newsroom experience.

I wonder if they accept SportsJournalists.com posts.

 

Make sure to buy a color printer, or they never will figure out when you're being sarcastic.

 

Please join my "Use Blue Font for Blue Font" campaign. Thanks.

 

Our paper is the opposite. It cares about the writers -- even if they're total idiots -- and doesn't give a damn about the copy desk.

But we still have low pay, bad hours and management that doesn't think highly of you and will bad mouth you if you leave.

 

Why is it that even though journalists give years and years of dedicated service under demanding daily deadlines, plenty of bosses think they can badmouth them simply for moving on?

That "What have you done for me lately?" shit applies to management now.

 

Journalism has nothing to do with this corporate mentality.

 

Roll Tide.