Is there any way to avoid a preps gig as your first job?

[MisterCreosote]

It's usually a pretty sharp learning curve, but let's not pretend covering hard news is splitting the atom. It's not.

 

[Dick Whitman]

How do you know they can't handle it if you never give them the chance?

They're managing risk.

How do you know I can't write a best-selling horror novel?

I might do an amazing job at it. But given the choice, I'm hiring Stephen King.

 

[zagoshe]

deck - The other thing is the politics beat is one that a lot of reporters who have been grinding the night cops and dog catcher elections aspire to and is looked at as sort of a reward/promotion for newsers.

It would be like a news side guy inquiring about the suddenly open NFL beat job - when there are two backup NFL guys and a college beat guy waiting in the wings to try and get the NFL job.

 

[Dick Whitman]

deck - The other thing is the politics beat is one that a lot of reporters who have been grinding the night cops and dog catcher elections aspire to and is looked at as sort of a reward/promotion for newsers.

It would be like a news side guy inquiring about the suddenly open NFL beat job - when there are two backup NFL guys and a college beat guy waiting in the wings to try and get the NFL job.

I definitely understand that now, and it makes sense. At the time, it was quite a splash of cold water in the face to realize what 10 pretty distinguished years in sports could buy - a starter beat in news.

 

[zagoshe]

About 20 years ago our sports editor left and we had an interim sports editor from news side for about six months until the hired the new sports editor. We all hated him because he was such a pain in the ass with his constant attention to detail -- but he made us all better reporters as he approached things as if we were news reporters.

 

[93Devil]

If you want to write something that your voice will be the only one, or one of very few, painting the picture of the story of the game, then write preps.

If you want to be one of many, many voices, then write college or pro, if you can.

I would also argue in today's media, prep reporters have more job security.

 

[Will Graham]

In my experience, it depends on what you value most.

I've found news siders to be much better writers, in the journalism sense. I hated flowery, meaningless prose, and saw much more of it in sports than in news.

It's largely a push on quality and breadth of reporting, though the magnitude of the reporting is completely different.

The standard view is that sports reporters are better on deadline, but I've found plenty of evidence suggesting they're no better or worse at it than the average news sider.

Again, only my experience, but I've found sports reporters and deskers to be much better multitaskers, but that's more the nature of the job than any skill inherently specific to sports journalists.

How do you know they can't handle it if you never give them the chance?

Stop making sense, MNgremlin.

 

[Tweener]

I get what you mean. I spent two years as the sports editor at my university's paper and at times had to one-man show a major Division I football and basketball beat. I freelanced for Associated Press, local papers, did some community journalism and interned with the sports department at a major state newspaper . I felt like I networked pretty well as I know all the local and state beat guys, not to mention their sports editors.

It's just a bit disheartening to see that I'm probably going to enter the job market at the same level as guys who only wrote a handful of articles per semester.

Reality check time, GA. We all worked our butts off in college. Disclosure: I went to arguably the best j-school in all the land, and for years worked a major D-I football and basketball beat while pulling all-nighters as an editor at one of the most accomplished student publications in the country. I also interned at three of the 25 highest circulated metros and freelanced for a handful of others, and I still began my career in preps.

But guess what? I took pride in my beat, destroyed it, and after a few years got to move on to something I enjoyed a little more. Looking back, I didn't know half of what I thought I knew coming out of college and the preps gig did me a lot of good. It made me a much more astute writer and reporter and better prepared me to do a bang-up job covering college and pro sports.

Covering preps may not be what you want to do, but it shows your naivety if you think making it in this business is going to come without sacrifices.

 

[wisportswriter]

I personally would never hire a sports reporter who hasn't covered news at some point.

I'm grateful, then, that I had a far more open-minded editor than you back in 2012. After 10+ years covering prep sports, I requested a move to news, despite having written exactly zero (non-sports) news stories in my career. In the 3+ years since on the politics/government beat, I've become a bureau chief at a bigger paper/group, covering the state capitol and Iowa caucuses.
I hope folks believe me when I say I'm the farthest thing from a chest-thumper. I say this only to illustrate a woefully shortsighted viewpoint.

OP: Suck it up and report on preps. If you're good enough, when an opportunity comes along, someone will hire you to cover the colleges or pros.
And if covering preps makes you that unhappy, you may be in the wrong business anyway. If you don't love the job more than the subject matter, I think it's tough to hang around for long.

 

[Biff Tannen]

I'm grateful, then, that I had a far more open-minded editor than you back in 2012. After 10+ years covering prep sports, I requested a move to news, despite having written exactly zero (non-sports) news stories in my career. In the 3+ years since on the politics/government beat, I've become a bureau chief at a bigger paper/group, covering the state capitol and Iowa caucuses.
I hope folks believe me when I say I'm the farthest thing from a chest-thumper. I say this only to illustrate a woefully shortsighted viewpoint.

OP: Suck it up and report on preps. If you're good enough, when an opportunity comes along, someone will hire you to cover the colleges or pros.
And if covering preps makes you that unhappy, you may be in the wrong business anyway. If you don't love the job more than the subject matter, I think it's tough to hang around for long.

God, you sound just like my parents. Because check it. I had a similar problem in college. I really hated Ramen noodles and Keystone Light <shudders>. I didn't look down on those who did like those things, per se, but I just couldn't imagine spending the last few years of my youth not eating filets and drinking Chateau Le Mission Haut-Brion. I asked them if there was any way around this because it's not that I felt entitled, it's just I really didn't like these less prestigious things. Long story short, my dad told me to walk outside and get punched because I lacked perspective or whatever, I don't know, I wasn't really listening. Parents just don't understand.

 

[Riptide]

God, you sound just like my parents. Because check it. I had a similar problem in college. I really hated Ramen noodles and Keystone Light <shudders>. I didn't look down on those who did like those things, per se, but I just couldn't imagine spending the last few years of my youth not eating filets and drinking Chateau Le Mission Haut-Brion. I asked them if there was any way around this because it's not that I felt entitled, it's just I really didn't like these less prestigious things. Long story short, my dad told me to walk outside and get punched because I lacked perspective or whatever, I don't know, I wasn't really listening. Parents just don't understand.

And that's when you started detailing cars for a living, right?

 

[GAWalker]

God, you sound just like my parents. Because check it. I had a similar problem in college. I really hated Ramen noodles and Keystone Light <shudders>. I didn't look down on those who did like those things, per se, but I just couldn't imagine spending the last few years of my youth not eating filets and drinking Chateau Le Mission Haut-Brion. I asked them if there was any way around this because it's not that I felt entitled, it's just I really didn't like these less prestigious things. Long story short, my dad told me to walk outside and get punched because I lacked perspective or whatever, I don't know, I wasn't really listening. Parents just don't understand.

I laughed. Not really analogous in any way, but I can still appreciate it.