1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Journalists helping out with media guide

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Moderator1, Aug 4, 2008.

  1. Robby

    Robby New Member

    I've done what Big Circus describes, write PR material for one sport and work as a reporter on something entirely different. The key is to keep them separate.

    Getting paid by a team, league, school, etc. for anything should be avoided not only if you cover that organization, but if you might report on it even in a small secondary way as part of some other journalistic endeavor.

    Anything that could be interpreted as crossing that line (even if only in the wildest stretch of the imagination) should be discussed with an employer first or fully disclosed in the case of a freelancer.

    Freelancers in particular may not be in position to say no to some such work, but have an obligation to the news organizations they report for to make any such relationships clear. Even if they don't say it directly, editors generally are counting on you not getting them dragged into conflict of interest situations.
     
  2. reformedhack

    reformedhack Well-Known Member

    Apropos of nothing, perhaps it's worth noting that the St. Pete Times has a marketing partnership with the USF athletics department. Not that I'm suggesting anything.
     
  3. Birdscribe

    Birdscribe Active Member

    Keep in mind that Steve Elling, one of the best golf writers in the country, lost his job in one of Tribune's selective ethics enforcement spasms for writing a piece for a golf program. His paper's once dynamic golf coverage hasn't been the same since.

    So, as I channel the sagacious Joe Williams and the late Michael Conrad for a moment, if you're north of 40 and your salary is north of Food Stamp Land, be careful out there.
     
  4. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    I talked to a bunch of people about this in the past day. I'm OK with things as they were explained to me and would consider going this route with some of our guides if my old shop was OK with it.
     
  5. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    You should solicit help here for proof-reading your guides and what not.

    Since the unemployment rate here is somewhere north of 85 pct, you'd probably have 250 resumes in your inbox in an hour.
     
  6. Flip Wilson

    Flip Wilson Well-Known Member

    At one of my SID gigs, the AD and marketing guy told me that the beat writer who covered our main sport would be designing the media guide -- for the sport he covered -- for the upcoming season. After I listed all the reasons this was not a good idea -- ethics, all that stuff -- they said that the check to pay him would be made to his wife, so it would all be OK. And the sports editor at his paper was OK with this arrangement.

    On the other hand, at the same place, I did a lot of research for an NCAA regional golf tournament we were hosting and forwarded it to the beat writer who would be covering the tournament. She put together a huge graphic of the teams which would be playing, and I got a co-writer's byline. No pay, but the byline was a nice gesture.
     
  7. Obscure 80s TV Star

    Obscure 80s TV Star New Member

    Orlando's golf coverage has been beyond awful ever since Elling left.
     
  8. First Inning

    First Inning Guest

    Auman addressed this directly in his blog. Here's the excerpt.

    - Just a full disclosure thing: If you have USF's 2008 football media guide, you'll see I'm credited as one of 11 copy editors. I want to make it clear I wasn't compensated in any way for proofing pages for the guide. Just wanted to help -- if I can catch a few things in July, it's less likely that I or anyone else will pass along something incorrect from the guide to the blog or the paper during the season. I don't have a problem with that from an ethics standpoint, nor do my editors. I welcome your e-mails at auman@sptimes.com ...

    My wife pointed out that 'don't they have SIDs to proof those things.' Then I mentioned an interesting tidbit, also from the St. Pete Times, about UCF having an entry in its media guy about quarterback Drew Weatherford. Of course, they meant to say Joe Weatherford, Drew's younger brother, is on the UCF roster. Oops
     
  9. GuessWho

    GuessWho Active Member

    Even if he does it on his own time for free, the fact that the guide lists his name in the credits is a big problem for me. Just doesn't pass the perception test. Maybe he was unaware they were going to do that, I don't know.

    Full disclosure: I've done some stuff for programs, too. But it's been for NCAA championships and not a school's own gameday program. And my shop requires that I be identified as working for the Daily Bugle, just so there's no confusion.
     
  10. In Exile

    In Exile Member

    This is one of those situations where it is far better, I think, to err on the side of caution rather than even to risk having the question raised.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page