Hiring bias against sports writers?

You have a problem with it?

 

You just worked hard for the free pizza on election night, which is the only time news writers ever face deadlines.

 

Oh, there's much more deadline stuff than elections.

And most of it is not scripted. "Let's see, the bin Laden death is scheduled to be announced at 10:38 p.m., so we'll need to plug that for first edition."

 

The ultimate nightmare deadline for newsside in my Herald days was the death of Princess Di. It took place late at night on a Saturday. Let the record show they did an excellent job. Also, at Super Bowl XXXVI, there was a mixup in assignments and it was noted none of the sports reporters and columnists there had been assigned to the Rams. Business section reporter Cosmo Macero said "I'll do it" went down and wrote sidebars on Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk.
A good reporter is a good reporter, whatever the subject.

 

No, just wondering why you didn't end your condescending pep talk with "Go get 'em, champ."

 

Doc completely it the nail square on the head.
Very well said and I have nothing to add.

 

Asking sports writers how awesome and versatile sportswriters are isn't a great way to get an unbiased opinion.

 

What is being "rejected immediately" mean? Are editors calling you up a few minutes after e-mailing a resume saying "No thanks?" I assume you have clips from your work on the news side. Even if they're a few years old, editors will still consider them. Heck, I've gotten a few emails out of the blue since I've been out of the business asking if I'm interested in a news reporting job because I applied for a spot in the same chain or at the same paper several years back, and I'm not anything out of the ordinary.

 

Sportswriters have to write fast, which is not to be dismissed, but in nearly all cases of needing to write fast, all the information is delivered to them, or at least it's concentrated in one place (locker room) for them to go get it.

I've seen plenty of people go back and forth and do both easily, but I would say the one litmus test is how well you know your way around public records. If you do, highlight that in your job. If you don't, learn it. Otherwise you aren't a news reporter.

 

It wasn't a condescending pep talk. I fully support what Doc said. By the way, what's with the alias?

 

This editor didn't consider them. Below is the exchange I had with him through e-mail.

After receiving my resume for the open position this is the response I got.

Editor: "We're looking for candidates with strong recent experience covering local news. Your background appears to be strong in sports. I'm not involved in hiring sports writers."

Me: "I am very comfortable covering straight news and can send you several examples of clips where I have handled local news."

Editor: "Given that sports is your specialty, it's not worth your time to pursue news jobs with us at this time. We have literally dozens of reporter candidates with very strong news experience."

That's the line that spurred me to start this discussion... "Given that sports is your specialty, it's not worth your time to pursue news jobs with us at this time." I didn't say sports was my specialty, he did.

All that being said, I just may not be qualified to make the cut in this case, but this is one of the many responses I've received in this manner.

 

If you were applying for a news job and you have news clips, why didn't you send him news clips?

I'm starting to think troll on this one.