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'Bumped up from preps'

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

  1. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    There's the problem with preps, especially at major metros. I was part of a 12-person prep crew loaded with talent capable of pro/college beat jobs, but those jobs weren't coming open often at the paper. So the bitterness and kvetching was out of control. I stopped going out on Friday nights after football because the bar conversation never changed.
     
  2. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I covered preps exclusively for about six months, before I got "bumped up" to GA/preps before I got "bumped up" to baseball...

    All things being equal, I would rather cover preps than baseball.

    One of the preps editors who I used to work with was a veteran of covering pro and college teams who jumped at the chance to be the preps editor because he was sick of traveling. Nobody in their right mind would say the guy was demoted. But he's the editor... The guys underneath him all seem to be salivating at the prospect of any promotion to a college or pro beat.
     
  3. Well said.
     
  4. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    But they work just as hard!
     
  5. You know, my paper is interviewing for a new sports reporter. Community weekly, well-read, big metro area, tough job to snag. A cover letter comes in with the recent college grad saying that he knows in order to make it in the biz he needs to "start at the bottom rung," i.e. my publication.

    My first thought was how many writers in my area would love to leave their awful situations, make some more coin and earn some more readers on that "rung." My second thought was how much I wished the kid would have talked more about how he'd work his ass off for us than try and place us on his presumed journalistic ladder.
     
  6. I'm one of the few who writes preps by choice. I've had chances to move "up the ladder," so to speak, but I enjoy the flexibility my current gig affords me. And while it's often difficult to drag an interesting quote out of a teenager, I'd much rather deal with them than professional athletes.

    Just my two cents.
     
  7. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    There are times I'd love to go to college or pro beat writers with a youthful air of self-importance and say "I've done your job; come try to do mine." Not writing about the games, but all the scheduling, dealing with parents and all the other crap...
     
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