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'Bumped up from preps'

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by slappy4428, Aug 10, 2007.

  1. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Minions are OK, but I prefer henchmen.
     
  2. spaceman

    spaceman Active Member

    Minions are more compliant than henchmen.
     
  3. da man

    da man Well-Known Member

    Why is moving from preps to colleges or pros considered a bump up? The answer usually begins with a $.
     
  4. Editude

    Editude Active Member

    Previous good-sized stop, one of our top writers loved preps so much that he turned down a major pro beat to keep covering them, and we hired a relative entry-level reporter for the pro spot. Before I hang it up I expect to make another pass as a preps editor at a place that devours preps.
     
  5. spinning27

    spinning27 New Member

    There's nothing wrong with covering preps, just like there's nothing wrong with the longtime high school coach who is very content within his world and has no interesting in taking a low-level college assistant job and getting on a different career track.

    But one of the issues with preps is that you very rarely see significant journalism done on prep beats; in part because it's very difficult to do. When you're covering 9 high schools and 30 sports, it's very rare you get the opportunity to do anything outside of the normal cycle. The people who do break major stories on preps usually aren't doing preps long; they either move to college/pro beats or to takeout type jobs.
     
  6. Some Guy

    Some Guy Active Member

    For the same reason when an offensive coordinator becomes a head coach, we say he was "promoted to head coach."

    Sure, there are plenty of offensive coordinators out there who are offensive coordinators for life by choice. But moving up is moving up.

    As a former prep guy who was "bumped up," a few years ago, I don't take offense.
     
  7. chazp

    chazp Active Member

    That's why the other 10 percent of paper's prep coverage is so good. They know it's important and make sure they have guys/ladies who know what they're doing covering the beat. Yes, you are right that 90 percent of papers view it as entry level, but they're missing out on a chance to reach more readers with better prep coverage.
     
  8. Mystery_Meat

    Mystery_Meat Guest

    So if you were the SE of a paper that had an NFL beater, two I-A FBS beaters, two I-AA FCS beaters, minor-league baseball and hockey beaters, a golf beater and three prep beaters, you'd put your top three reporters on the high school beat? How would you distribute your staff?
     
  9. joe king

    joe king Active Member

    In larger markets -- anywhere there are college or pro teams, really -- there is far more demand from readers for stories on pros and colleges than for high school stories. You put your best people where they're going to be read the most. Therefore, high schools are the low end of the writing scale.
     
  10. chazp

    chazp Active Member

    My point was some papers who view preps as important don't hire entry level kids just out of school to staff it. Like when the Seattle paper had the preps beat open this year, they weren't going to hire someone fresh out of school. They hired someone who had experience covering preps or another beat elsewhere.
     
  11. mediaguy

    mediaguy Well-Known Member

    Did preps. Liked preps. But when you leave preps in this business, it's rarely begrudgingly. Bumped up is the correct terminology.

    There are things I miss about preps, absolutely, but looking up at the rest of the sports section from near-irrelevance isn't one of them.
     
  12. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    As others have said, depending on the paper and the location it's not always irrelevant.
     
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