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Exactly How Fun Is It To Be a Sports Journalist?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by kweonsam, Aug 18, 2014.

  1. DeskMonkey1

    DeskMonkey1 Active Member

    This is more of aside than anything but I actually enjoyed working news more than sports, as far as my personal life is concerned. In sports, I'm pretty much locked in to working weekends 10 months of the year. At least in news, there was only about a 2-3 week off-limits time for vacation, that being during a special section.

    I get very envious looking over at news side and seeing copy desk folks getting three weekends off a month and being able to take off Labor Day weekend or go out of town for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
     
  2. BrownScribe

    BrownScribe Active Member

    I loved that I got to meet so many different athletes, coaches, and even parents ;D. As far as the writing part went, the thrill of finishing a story on deadline, or seeing a cool feature turn out well, was awesome. It was like a high. But working nights, weekends, and even holidays got old quick. I saw all my friends dating, going on trips, or just being able to go out together and drink a few — while I was stuck working. I ended up moving to the news side at my paper. The hours were better, and my social life improved.

    But now that I am out of the biz, things are better all around.

    I think the art of being a sports journalist is a lot of fun, but the business aspect of it is terrible.
     
  3. Kamaki

    Kamaki Member


    I believe ...

    "What the hell are you talking about?"

    is the correct response to that.
     
  4. exmediahack

    exmediahack Well-Known Member

    Yes, this first line. I gave myself until I was 30 to "get to Bristol" as a sports anchor. Didn't happen so I left for news at 30. The reasoning... I didn't want to be 40 and covering high school volleyball.

    However, when I was 29, I knew the end might be near when I was covering an NFL playoff game and, for the first time in my nine years in sports, I wasn't into it. I would much have rather been home with our son (then a toddler).
     
  5. valpo87

    valpo87 Guest

    I love it. I love writing sports and feature stories. I just don't love the pay. And I guarantee that is the sentiment of most on this board. The problem is the industry is struggling and while I'm one of few optimists who feels there will always be a need for local journalism, it is becoming more bleak by the day.

    Speaking for myself, I feel there is sometimes a disconnection between writer and management. I recently tried to jump from a weekly to the company's daily publication twice. I was rejected both times, but had an interview for one only because there were three applicants. The problem is not many editors will take an applicant seriously when all they have only worked at weekly newspapers. I feel that can be an unfair assumption. For example, I still turn amd event or feature into a finished product (ranging from 500-1,000 words) within an hour or less. But no one outside my current newsroom sees that.

    I love being a writer. I just don't love the feeling that all the hard work I put in is for nothing more than a byline and a paycheck that is barely enough for a three-child family. But I know I'm not the only journalist with these struggles. The difference is what city and what paper.
     
  6. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    Nobody pays for what they can get for free.
     
  7. Uncle Frosty

    Uncle Frosty Member

    It was a lot more fun when the interns had lots of ambition and no morals.

    Stupid HR department.
     
  8. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    As an editor, I miss writing on 13-14 Friday nights a year. That's all.
     
  9. Bronco77

    Bronco77 Well-Known Member

    I know where you're coming from. My previous gig was as the night metro editor at a medium-sized newspaper, and while the job had its share of drawbacks, the schedule actually was pretty good. I was off Saturday and Sunday, and if I had to work holidays it was usually slow and I was able to leave early. Really looked forward to Thanksgiving, when I was scheduled off the whole weekend, including Friday. It was a salaried position and I'd usually volunteer to work New Year's Day (when sports is crazy with bowl games, but breaking local news consisted of the first newborn of the new year and little else) and either Memorial or Labor Day, then take comp time on nights when I knew there'd be a ton of local governmental meetings.

    In my current job, the boss has instituted "blackout dates" (late August through the end of November and several other much shorter blocks of time) for vacations, and we also cannot have more than one designer and one word person off at a time. And even getting a random Saturday off can be tricky. The boss tries to accommodate everyone and usually succeeds, but nobody gets everything they want.
     
  10. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Replace 37 with 31, and that's me.

    I design pages. I used to read stories and have fun with headlines and captions. I have enough downtime to surf the internet and leave and run an errand if I need to. I don't have to ask some supervisor if I want to take a break. There are 3-4 TVs on all the time, so if there's some great ending in some game somewhere, I won't miss it just because I'm at work. I don't punch a clock. If I get the work done, it doesn't matter what time I come in. Yeah, sometimes I'm at work while other people are doing "fun stuff." But I'm also doing "fun stuff" while other people are at work.

    What's not to like?
     
  11. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    Replace 31 with 34, and that's me. Exactly what you said.
     
  12. Bronco77

    Bronco77 Well-Known Member

    After more than 30 years, I still thoroughly enjoy the "sports journalist" aspects of the profession. I'm surrounded by (mostly) good, talented people, and even on the most difficult nights we still usually manage to have fun and laugh a lot. I have no illusions at this point in my career that I'm anything more than a journeyman copy editor who's probably seen better days, but I'm still competent enough and productive enough that it's highly unlikely I'd lose my job for performance-related issues. Yeah, I commented about the schedule a few posts ago, but it really isn't a big deal -- you go into this job knowing you'll work nights, weekends and holidays.

    Being that it's an election day here, I'll go into work tonight, see the folks on the news copy desk panicking their way through the night, and take great pride in the fact that we handle that sort of workload every night, producing clean sections and making our deadlines much more often than not.

    What I don't like is the business aspect -- the constant talk about downsizing, cutbacks and layoffs; the speculation about the future of our company and our copy desk operation; marketing consultants who have influenced editorial philosophy to the point that headlines like "Bulldogs defeat Tigers" are encouraged and anything that shows a creative spark is rewritten; the fact that we've lost good people who aren't being replaced and co-workers are getting burned out to the point that stress-related health issues are a very real possibility.

    But give me the opportunity to turn around a late-breaking story on deadline and I'm still able to filter all that out, at least for a few minutes. It's what we do.
     
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