The Athletic keeps growing .......

I read that they have a beat writer for each team and two "national" writers. I would guess that all of the team beat writers are contractors and maybe the national writers are full-time employees. Maybe. That way you could still keep track of the league year-round.

 

No benefits, the season lasts about four months and offseason news is limited. These writers might be making $150 a story.

 

A few journalists didn't much care for The Athletic's "let's hire a bunch of women to cover the WNBA" approach.





They got shouted down a little for their takes.

Most of the jobs seem like stringer/side deals. One of them, for example, is a professor.

It's a hard issue to resolve, to some degree. SI, for example, hired a female writer whose hiring was, at best, a stretch, that writer got in online argument with Ed Werder, so on and so on. Here's that writer's latest:

The growing legend of Phil Mickelson's calves

 

People like Charlotte Wilder’s work and have at her last couple stops. At what point do we say, hey, people like her stuff so she must be good at what she does instead of, hey, she’s just not a great writer? Standards and tastes change. Done with thread jack.

 

Back to The Athletic: You can't knock covering the WNBA, and the routine beat work should lead to many stories that otherwise would never get covered. But The Athletic also is saying in essence, "We use interns to cover the WNBA." I've edited plenty of interns, and if you have the time, it's rewarding for both editor and writer. Let's hope they give them some editing.

 

This is a positive way to look at it. That a media site is committed to blanket covering a women’s league is also a very positive step.
It’s also worth noting that these are all contract writers, making between $100 and $300 per article. That’s reporting, writing and social media included. I’m told no benefits. (The ME of the vertical and the two national writers might be exceptions.)
The men covering the NBA for The Athletic are compensated much differently. There are points to be made about reporters’ experiences and the popularity of the leagues. But it’s still a conversation worth exploring and if there were more women in management positions that conversation wouldn’t be limited to Twitter.

 

Just anecdotally, the people I know who are WNBA fans really don't have any interest in any other sport. It's strictly WNBA.

(And yes, almost all of them are lesbians.)

 

I followed the WNBA (the Sky in particular) for about two years when they had Elena Delle Donne. That was the entirety of my interest.

 

Is there anything Twitter wont find a reason to bitch about?

No wnba writers? Misogynist site!

Hire men to cover wnba? Misogynist patriarchy industry!

Hire women to cover wnba? Tokenism! Relegating women writers to a lesser league! (Which admits that the wnba is a lesser league but oh well).

Its impossible to please these people.

 

Good on The Athletic for taking the risk on WNBA coverage. So it's basically a four-month gig? Let's hope the writers make the most of it so they can move up to a college or pro beat.

I get the sense some want them to be handed the keys to the kingdom right away, like over on the jobs board when there's a listing at a weekly in East Bumfuck and the first question is "Will there be any coverage of Big State U involved?" No, you're there to cover East Bumfuck High, Nosepickers Christian Academy and write the rec softball roundup each week.

Not saying there aren't female writers capable of starting off on, say, an NBA beat, much like male writers, out of college or an internship, but as we know, they are few and far between. A door is opening ... it's a case of how hard you want to push it.