Bleacher Report's Advanced Program in Sports Media

Fucking hell. Do what you want. You asked the question. If you don't like the answers, from multiple people in the industry, then take the gig. Just make sure to write a 2,000 word diatribe about how much it sucked after you leave.

 

It's called a discussion. You'll have to be more specific than "relatively good gig". I don't want to go somewhere too small that works you like a dog with very limited opportunities for good clips.

 

It's pretty sad the OP, who was a f-ing stud in college, couldn't land anything better than a gig walking the sidelines for lunch money.

 

Anyone have an email address for one of the pros there?

 

I'm not going to blow the opportunity off as garbage. Hell, I would have given it a long look while I was in college. If only for the "class" materials, something to lead me in the right direction.

But I really wouldn't use a recommendation from the managing editor of sports media blog AwfulAnnouncing.com as a serious selling point.

 

BR's levels remind me of scientology but if you can figure them out and profit from there more power to you

 

You may have been a college newspaper stud, but this line tells me a lot without having read a single clip.

True journalists, even those still wet behind the ears, find a way to contact someone without asking for info. Do the legwork yourself. Where might an email address be listed? How might one contact a public person in journalism if, for some reason, an email addy isn't publicly listed?

If you can't figure the answers out to those questions in a matter of seconds, you don't belong in this business.

 

But it was so easy when stats were handed to me and every interview was arranged by the SID.

 

I like this kid. Going hard in the paint against veterans in the industry when they answer his question. That takes the kind of baseless confidence that reminds me of me when I graduated from a top-tier DI program with great clips from my school paper.

Sure, B/R is gaining a shred of respectability. But do you see how they are doing it? By hiring people who have experience in the industry, a lot from newspapers or well-established online outlets. An internship with B/R would have been down right preposterous a few years ago and is only laughable now. If you want to be a great writer, this won't get you where you want to go. You are better off looking for real work, freelancing to build more clips, and networking with local outlets and other writers.

 

The problem with depending on "heavy cash infusions" from motherships is that they can easily decide you're no longer worth the trouble/expense and turn off the spigot.

 

False. Not "everyone" starts out unpaid.
I started out as a freelancer with B/R two years ago after going through some of the same turbulence that many in this industry have gone through and began at a level well above "free" and above $7800 per year and have received several raises since then. I have a full-time gig outside of journalism now, but have stayed with B/R on a freelance basis (I have a contract) and have found them to be a pretty solid outfit to work for. Professional editors, flexible, never had serious problems with payment.
And they've brought a number of pros on board - like Lars Anderson and Bryan Fischer among others - who I'm pretty darn sure aren't working for free.
B/R earned a bad rep, but they're working hard to shed it and have gained traction with some solid longform stories and reporting.
Are there people working for free? Yeah, probably, but let's not pretend it's the same organization it was 5 years ago. That's unfair.