'I Covered the Braves for a newspaper that didn't exist'

One of the beat writers half jokingly suggested the AP guy and I just take care of the all-tournament team because we were the only ones who saw every inning.

 

How do you go about getting these freelancing gigs? Is it the big papers that are more likely to be interested or smaller ones?

 

At the time I freelanced pretty regularly for a metro that had some interest in the college in my town, but nobody on the beat full time. Another team from that paper's coverage area was the No. 4 seed in that regional. There was also a school from New York in the regional, so I emailed all the New York papers and one hired me. The fourth team was a mid-major from a neighboring state. That school was probably fourth or fifth in its state in terms of interest so the closest metro wanted it covered, but didn't want to send anybody. It just happened to work out somebody needed a stringer for all four teams.

You just have to reach out to papers that have teams coming to your town. Sometimes it works out sometimes it doesn't.

 

We got some real boneheaded stringers a couple of years ago and quit using stringers for anything. Idiots that got drunk and one even fell asleep during a game. Now we just use the sports information story or the wire story. No need paying for some idiot to sit up there and be a fanboy on our dime.

 

Did all the papers for which you were freelancing know you were also freelancing for others? I'm curious, particularly for those who did multiple stories on the same team from the same game.

Our freelance agreement supposedly prohibits working simultaneously for another daily, though I know at least one of our stringers still does.

 

I told them. Usually as long as they were getting a different story and getting it by deadline they didn't care.

I was lucky, after my paper eliminated my position several years ago there happened to be multiple NCAA tournament events in minor sports in my area. Those were the best for making good money stringing.

 

They didn't ask and they never said I couldn't. I did it for three seasons and nobody ever said a word. I tweaked each story just enough that they weren't exactly the same but there's not a lot you can change in four paragraphs and the boxscore is always the same.

Still, those were some nice weekly bonus checks. In fact, I made more with those three stories in 15 minutes than I did for an entire 40-hour work week ($250).

 

Anytime I work for more than one outlet on the same event I will ALWAYS make sure all parties know and approve, otherwise I won't do it. I consider it the fair and ethical thing to do.

I try to never cover the same team at an event for more than one outlet. To me, that definitely isn't fair to those outlets. I can count on one hand the number of times I've done that in my 30 years of freelancing, and the last time was at least 10 years ago.

The thing is, I'm trying to build long-term relationships with these papers and their editors. I've worked with a lot of them for years and years. I want them to be fair with me -- and to keep giving me assignments -- so I'm going to be sure to be fair to them.

 

Good for you. That was 26 years ago. I was making $250 a week and struggling to survive on a two-week check that netted $424. I'm not sorry I couldn't live up to your self-righteous mandate in 1990 straight out of college. Faced with the same situation, I'd do it again. But you definitely deserve an atta-boy for your greet deeds of loyalty and moral conscience. Dick.

 

When I freelanced, I did string for multiple papers, but not if they were in the same media market.

And as far as I'm concerned, arena football was the greatest creation ever. Just enough interest to warrant a stringer on the road. Got bylines in Boston, Dallas,Minneapolis, Charlotte, Philly, New Orleans and Cleveland just to name a few...

 

He took "deadline" literally?