College beat writer conundrum

I think we all know the score here. If your number comes up, no amount of extra effort is going to change a thing. You can play the blame game from now until eternity, but that doesn't change the industry and where it's headed. It is what it is. But...

We are all (presumably) professionals, even if we aren't paid like it, and we owe it to ourselves and our readers to continue to give our best effort every day we're on the job.

For me, the deal is this. I'm 50-plus years old and I've been in this business for more than 25 years. I don't know how to do anything else. It's either newspapers or stocking shelves at Target (which might pay better, but that's beside the point). As long as I still have a job at the paper and can draw a paycheck doing something I love, I'm going to do the best job there that I possibly can. I always have and I always will.

 

Honestly, given all the cutbacks and furloughs, I'm really surprised that anyone has just one specific beat anymore. It would seem that once a certain season is done, you'd be assigned something else, be it GA or another beat.

Cause we all gotta do "more with less", right?

As for job security, unless you are a total blowhard and slacker, I don't think it will matter. I worked at least as hard and long as anyone else in my shop and yet got the short straw simply because I made more than anyone except the SE.

 

Before I was laid off, my down time didn't start until the summer. I covered one of the few schools, I suppose, where there is good interest in baseball.

Lots of fun when I went to Omaha. One time, I got back home, it seemed like a week went by, and it was time to start getting football stuff ready.

 

Certain beats have more than enough to cover (and more than enough reader interest) to keep one person extremely busy 9-10 months per year.