University of Kentucky beat, Louisville, KY

So, Ticket, you are the editor:

Applicant A has been in the biz for 3 years and has good clips covering preps from a 20,000 daily.

Applicant B has been in the biz for 13 years, the past three covering a major college in the same conference as your opening for a 150,000 daily. His clips are just as good.

Whom do you hire?

 

I doubt you're being completely serious, Ticketinfo, but if you are, there's a world of difference between being a fan and knowing what Patrick Sparks shoots from the field to being capable of breaking news/writing interesting stories on a competitive beat.

I'm sure one could get the IU beat that's open at the Bloomington paper without prior college beat experience.

It's perfectly reasonable to require it for the C-J's UK beat.

 

applicant a, because it's just not fair to hire someone you know can do that job, while there's a guy who has won two awards already just waiting for it!

 

I'll say it: Ticketinfo, YOU'RE HIRED!!!!!!

 

Awww, I though a Plain-Dealer joke was on its way, el grande.

 

There aren't "many people" capable of working at that beat. (I know maybe two or three guys who would even be halfway considered for that job --- they all covered major college or pro teams for 50,000-100,000 circulation papers) That is a big-boy/big-girl job. You're covering one of the premier college basketball programs in the U.S., with a rabid fanbase and in a highly competitive environment. You do well at that job, your next move is the L.A. Times, or the N.Y. Times, or the Washington Post, or ESPN, or a big sports editor gig.
You get college beat experience by working at smaller papers on the fringes of big schools. Find any way you can to weasel in on covering the big school. Be the guy doing notebook items or running quotes. You develop your chops there for a couple of years, then move on. Unless you're some kind of f'n stud who had amazing internships and kicked much ass, you won't get a major college beat handed to you right away.
Louisville's not going to gamble on somebody for a major beat. They want someone they know can come in and kick ass from day 1.

 

Tyler's right. The previously-mentioned "candidate a" would be a good prospect for the high school gig at the Courier that was recently advertised.
They likely already have a short list of people they want and they are big-time people from big-time papers. If you don't have college beat experience at a major paper, sorry, but you're wasting your time.

 

Simple: You start at a smaller paper with a full-time beat covering a mid-major; for example, Myrtle Beach covering Coastal Carolina, Flagstaff covering Northern Arizona or one of the mid-size towns in North Carolina covering UNC-Wilmington or UNC-Asheville.

The reason they think of this job that way is --- as already noted --- the visibility of the program, the circulation level and the fan interest. The person who gets this job is going into a situation that's literally the equivalent of Notre Dame, USC or the New York Yankees.

This isn't one step up from covering preps at a 50K. The UK beat, because it's the SEC and because UK basketball is UK basketball, is one of the most competitive jobs in the country. As noted earlier, the one person who covers UK for the C-J has to go up against the phalanx of writers the Herald-Leader throws at UK coverage on a daily basis. There will be one of you versus (from the Herald-Leader) Chip Cosby on football, Jerry Tipton on mn's basketball, Mark Story on columns and features, Jennifer Smith on women's basketball (which is rapidly becoming an important beat in the Bluegrass) and whoever else Gene Abell feels like sending to Commonwealth Stadium or Rupp Arena on a given day. Both the Lexington and Louisville papers are very, very good; nobody's working the "Little League beat" at either.

To steal a line from Mizzougrad96, this is one job where you absolutely have to be a fuckin' stud just to get an interview, and have the clips, references and awards1 to prove it. No way will Harry Bryan even consent to interview anybody less.

1And an award from the state prep baseball coaches doesn't cut it. Nothing personal, not trying to be mean. That's just the way it is.

 

so is the pr world...

 

As a part of a team that throws everything into a college beat to go against bigger papers, I would say you have to be a badass to compete with that on your own. It's very possible, but that's why the people who have those jobs are very good. Unfortunately, I also don't think someone can go straight from high schools to a major college beat. There has to be some experience reporting within an athletic department and knowing how they work. That is the key. There is so much more to it than just going to practice and games.

 

Exactly.
It's almost like throwing an 18-year-old pitcher into the majors straight from his high school team. Covering a program like UK, with its ultra-protective policies, and any major program for that matter, is all about having sources behind the scenes. Just because someone believes they can do a gamer as well as the metro folk, it doesn't mean they can do the beat as well as people like Michael Smith.