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How did you get started in journalism?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Football_Bat, May 31, 2010.

  1. GoTeamGo

    GoTeamGo New Member

    Majored in math my first two years of college with hopes of becoming a high school teacher. Hung out with the sports editor of the school paper one night. He found out I ran cross country in high school and asked if I wanted to try covering the indoor track teams that winter.

    I gave it a shot. The track teams were pretty darn good and I got some good stories out of it. Met some of the school paper's former sports guys who had moved on to a major daily nearby.

    Got my foot in the door stringing some high school games. When I graduated the paper just so happened to have a part-time job opening. I took it, and it's been all bells and whistles since.
     
  2. I was editor of our grade school newsletter (printed on mimeograph machines, remember those?) and used to drop in on the sports ed of the local paper to pick his brain and get pointers. Became Sports Ed of HS paper, SE of college daily, stringer for local paper in college, went to work for them after graduation. Been in the biz ever since, four decades now.

    Like Jimmy Buffett says, some of it's magic, some of it's tragic, but I had a good life all the way.
     
  3. reformedhack

    reformedhack Well-Known Member

    I pretty much always wanted to be involved in newspapers. In third grade, I suggested doing a class newspaper and the teacher agreed, so I was pretty much hooked. By the time I graduated high school, I had every intention of becoming a newspaper news reporter with a dream of becoming a big-city columnist someday ... Dave Barry was my hero.

    I went to a major state university with an excellent J-school and a great (off-campus) school newspaper. First week of my freshman year, I attended an open house at the school paper and discovered they had no openings for news reporters, but they were hurting for sportswriters. Since I played sports in high school and sold sporting goods in a department store as an after-school job, I figured, sure, I could be a sportswriter until a news side job opened up.

    They gave me some stories to do and, eventually, I had developed enough of a sportswriting knack that I was able to freelance stories to some of the state's biggest newspapers. Suddenly, checks were rolling in ... $50 here, $100 there, $25 for running quotes, $30 for football practice reports. I was clearing a good $500 a month as a college student.

    This was huge money, relatively speaking, so I decided to put my news writing aspirations on hold. Before long, my hometown paper (a top 30 metro) hired me as its campus sports correspondent for a sizable monthly retainer, and allowed me to do any freelancing I wanted for noncompeting papers.

    This was my downfall. Now, I was pulling in serious bucks -- relatively speaking -- and I decided, you know, I could be a sportswriter for a living.

    I broke a few big stories for my hometown paper, and that led to a job offer right out of college, and suddenly I was making megabucks -- relatively speaking, as someone fresh out of college -- as a sportswriter. And I decided, you know, I could do this forever.

    Then I got married. Bought a house. Had kids. And I decided, you know, I've gotta get out of this crazy business. And so I did.

    But I was hooked from the beginning.
     
  4. TrooperBari

    TrooperBari Well-Known Member

    The newspaper adviser at my high school left before my senior year to become the city editor of the local daily. He convinced the SE there to have me cover an American Legion game during the summer. I declined (had to work the closing shift at McDonalds), but he persisted and I bailed on fast food a couple months later. Worked for the local daily for five or six years before sheer geography came between us.

    I still hold said adviser and SE in high regard. The former has one foot out of the business, and the other has made the shift to PR.
     
  5. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Did the college paper thing, then caught on with local weekly as, of all things, an advertising salesman. I sucked at it and the territory really sucked as well (they were trying to expand to an area that already had plenty of competition). But I was able to write a couple of free stories for them for clips in my spare time, which got me a real journalism gig at a weekly group.

    Went from weekly to dailies, and now am sitting at home, collecting unemployment, thanks to the industry.
     
  6. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest

    Sorry, but that's a copout. The industry, struggling as it is, isn't making you sit at homre and collect unemployment. The business didn't strip you of your free will.
     
  7. Gomer

    Gomer Active Member

    My best marks in high school were in math, chemistry and music. My worst? English.

    Though I hung out with both the jocks and the geeks, I felt like I was socially inept. So instead of following my smartest friends into engineering, I decided my best bet for my future was to choose something I thought I could get the most out of: journalism.
     
  8. CA_journo

    CA_journo Member

    Started writing for the high school paper as a freshman. Then we had "career day," and I, of course, chose the journalism speaker. He was a sports writer from the local paper and he talked about covering the World Series. Yeah, after that, I figured that's the life for me.
     
  9. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    Had to choose a major in college. Chose two: political science (which I really enjoyed), and journalism. I was always a decent writer.

    After two years of trying to run college cross country and track and finding out (certainly in the former) that 110 miles a week wasn't doing much but break down my body, and a season of training on my own while being the team manager, my mom heard from the city editor at the local paper that they were looking for college kids to come in and take high school scores and write short phoners. Their friendship was an in, along with the fact that he was one of the better golfers in the city and I was a caddie, and it seemed better than working at Baskin Robbins and timing countless interval workouts through graduation.

    So I started taking high school phoners, and all it led to was a 34-year-and-counting career, which fortunately I seem somewhat suited for.

    I guess time will tell.
     
  10. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    Got the bug in sixth grade with the school newspaper. Was greatly encouraged in writing by both my eighth grade and sophomore year English teachers. Got a little more serious about it my junior year in high school. First bylined stories were in college, doing some news assisgnments and covering baseball for the college paper. Also did a couple of years after that helping out in the sports information office. Finally caught on at a weekly as the sports editor (well, the sports staff) and, except for a 10-year stint on the desk on news side, haven't looked back.
     
  11. shockey

    shockey Active Member

    after the strike. there was no paper during the '78 strike.
     
  12. Shoeless Joe

    Shoeless Joe Active Member

    Got out of the Navy and was working as a machinist. I was getting tired of hot pieces of metal flying down my shirt. I camped out on campus in line to get Jimmy Buffett tickets one Friday night. Got to thinking "I've got GI Bill money and should go to college. What do I want to do?"

    Started reading copies of the school paper while waiting. Just so happens, I was reading Lewis Grizzard's "If I Ever Get Back to Georgia ..."

    Things started clicking in my head. I like to read the paper. I like sports. I can go to school to be a sports writer.

    A couple of weeks later, I was enrolling in school majoring in journalism and calling the local paper to pester the shit out of people to give me a job stringing that fall covering football. Now, 17 years later, I'm the ASE.

    It's been a good ride, but when I recently found out that I've got a college degree and make less than people with GEDs at the local factories, I'm pretty pissed.

    Fucking book.
     
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