Is it too late to do this as a career???...

I would agree with SF_X that there will be sports reporting jobs in the future. I was speaking about newspaper jobs specifically, of which there will be fewer and fewer, sooner and sooner.

 

Unless you have a GREAT niche talent . . .

and/or unless you're willing to lay your body down for money which comes nowhere near compensating you for your legitimate self-worth . . .

You can do better, elsewhere, with the same talent package.

 

I'll offer a bit of optimism: I think for most papers/"news centers" there are always going to be a core number of sportswriting jobs that won't be eliminated. The college beat(s), at least one columnist and the high school beat(s). At my shop, for example, there are five such writing jobs. And we also have an extra full-time guy that writes takeouts and covers some pro stuff. That job won't exist forever, but I think at least four of the others will. It's the only way to remain relevant against our competition. For the papers that have a monopoly on the teams they cover, this may not be true, but how many of those papers are there?

 

get out while you still can

 

I'd say at age 23, get yourself a "real" job doing something else and make sports-writing/newspapers your hobby.

That way you can make a living, still do sports-writing and yet avoid the constant fear of being sacked (or not making enough to make ends meet).

"Stringers are the future" were words straight out of my bosses' mouth in a recent staff meeting (at which he announced he wasn't filling any open reporters' positions). In other words, in order to cut costs, a lot of papers will be looking to shell out $35-$50 a story to freelancers rather than have people on their staff full time.

 

That's great, as long as your focus is preps with maybe a non-D1 college thrown in.

 

I didn't even start writing for a paper until I was 23 and out of college. Sometimes I wonder if by not getting started during college (with the school paper, internships and co-ops) if I missed out on a certain foundation that I could never get later in life.

 

I left full time sports journalism for porn. They pay a lot better and you don't have to worry about getting fired. But seriiously, I left to become an ASID.

 

I find my self in the same boat.

The bigger question is - if sports is your one passion...and you aren't 6'5" and 240lbs - how else can you make a living, doing what you love? Being around sports!?!

 

Uh, work for a team, learn to call play-by-play, become an official, become an agent, study sports medicine, coordinate sports-related events for a charity....

 

he IS out. We're trying to convince him to stay out while he still can.

Well, I am, at least.

 

Even if it wasn't, why the hell would you want to? I mean, if you grew up wanting to buy a Cadillac, and worked hard to buy a Cadillac, and then when it was time to buy your Cadillac you learned that 50-percent of them end up falling apart at high speeds, catching fire or both would you still sign the papers?