USC reporter, Rivals

They would fire you for breaking big stories as long as they cast the program you are covering in a negative light. Trust me on this one...if you consider yourself a "real" journalist (I'll let you debate the meaning of that relative term) it's not the place to be.

I haven't even started in on the message board whackos you will deal with. Oh, man, do they deserve a special seat in Hell.

 

I don't know that I would probably recommend this job to a lot of people, but just to prove this isn't some Internet version of career suicide, the guy who just left here is helping out tonight at the Lakers game for OC.
Yeah, like I said before, he's pretty f-ing good at what he does (that's as close to MizzouGrad's copyrighted saying I can get w/o getting sued). But whoever takes this job -- assuming you don't want to be a homer -- might want to fully prepare for what you're actually doing.

 

Assuming the glorified PR thing isn't too much, is the pay enough to keep this job afloat in a potential employee's mind?

 

Honestly, it sounds like that's why a pre-established local (with a set housing situation) might have a good crack at this gig.
A roommate might be a prereq.

 

The pay ain't bad -- considering our chosen field, anyway -- but they won't give you anything for moving expenses. Plus, no benefits. You're paid as a freelancer.

 

I guess it all depends on who is running the site and what kind of journalism background they have. Homer reporters is bad for the business if its a website or a newspaper but if the site has any ethics this should not really be a problem.

A website like this is a great stepping stone for someone who may never get a chance to cover a D1 football powerhouse like USC if it was not for websites like this one.

Hell the guy who had this job is now working at the OC Register. I think I saw the OCR ad for the gig here back in Jan of last year.

 

Is it worth selling your soul for a short period in hopes of a job like this getting you where you want to go? With such a negative perception, I'm not completely convinced this could help if you seeking to go to a newspaper.

And the whole PR, fanboy thing is unsettling and a joke. Just the other day I noticed that the local Rivals guy wrote a few pieces for the local college's booster/ season ticket holder magazine, and it wasn't like freelance work. At the end of each story it said "So-and-so is the campus correspondent for Rivals.com and a regular contributor to ABC State Magazine."

You can talk about getting in bed with your beat but damn that's getting in bed and cuddling under the covers. Just isn't right.

 

It doesn't say you have to relocate. Many Rivals.com and Scout.com writers work from home. I know of a guy writing for a midwest football team who lives in Delaware.

He just makes a lot a lot a lot of calls to recruits.

 

They will not be trying to fill this position before the summer according to the publisher.

 

As I put in my original post, that's what I was told originally. Seeing as it's a mainly football gig, makes sense.

 

Can you find out if they want to writer to relocate?

 

You would absolutely have to relocate. You'd be expected to be everywhere the other beat writers are.