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!

Kid writes for Bleacher Report, never gets paid

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by NDJournalist, Jul 22, 2014.

  1. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Something has to pop up first when somebody types in Skyler Diggins Bikini and Hot Players Wives in the Googles.
     
  2. SnarkShark

    SnarkShark Well-Known Member

    I have a particularly unintelligent friend who gets all his news from B/R and the site's phone app.
     
  3. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    Once Huffington Post demonstrated what you can do with such a depraved, low-rent business model, the floodwaters rushed in.
     
  4. Morris816

    Morris816 Member

    I had a discussion elsewhere about Bleacher Report and one person brought up an important point: There's plenty of good writing to be found, but good reporting is getting harder to fine.

    Regarding BR: Since when did they ever do any reporting?
     
  5. Jake_Taylor

    Jake_Taylor Well-Known Member

    It's changing. B/R still has a lot of fanboi musings and WAG slideshows, but they've also hired a bunch of legit, big-time journalists. Jason King's college hoops notebook is a must-read for me.
     
  6. RecoveringJournalist

    RecoveringJournalist Well-Known Member

    I agree the McDonald's comparison isn't fair to McDonald's. At least McDonald's makes something. I know they've hired a few big names recently, and obviously, they're not getting completely screwed.

    I don't have a problem with kids working for free to get experience, as long as they understand what they're getting into.
     
  7. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    That's true of a lot more than just Bleacher Report. When the most popular sportswriter in America argues openly about how useless press conferences are because he's never been a reporter, you're going to get an inevitable backlash against the very need for reporting.
     
  8. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    Jason King is great, but hiring a bunch of guys who have worked elsewhere for 15 years doesn't make Bleacher Report any different from 15 different news sites.

    Bottom line: Bleacher Report rose on the backs of SEO manipulation and unpaid workers, and now wants to pal around with high-level operations like it had the same mission all along.

    It's a slumlord mentality, and people in this economic culture fall for it in part we're so narcissistic we'll take praise and approval in lieu of pay, and partly because we've been told all business owners are saints who really just want to cut you in if you'll go along with their horsecrap for a year or two, when, in reality, they usually cut you out.
     
  9. Matt Stephens

    Matt Stephens Well-Known Member

    This morning, I listened to an athletic director use a negative article on Bleacher Report as an example of what the school has to recruit against ...
     
  10. 3_Octave_Fart

    3_Octave_Fart Well-Known Member

    They're a simple Ponzi.
    Pay a few at the top, the rest of the lot compensated in "exposure."
    http://www.sfweekly.com/2012-10-03/news/bleacher-report-sports-journalism-internet-espn-news-technology/
     
  11. Pancamo

    Pancamo Active Member

    BR just hired Jason Cole. I assume Cole and Freeman will travel to games and league meetings but do the other "lead" writers go to camps and games?
     
  12. OceanLottery

    OceanLottery Member

    This'll probably be the most-read thing this kid ever writes. What editor, after seeing that, is going to want to hire him? He may have been wronged, but a 6,800-word, woe-is-me bitch-fest is probably not the best first impression to make.

    Also, throughout the piece he references how he kept getting better. Says who? He has notes from his editors about not getting paid; the notes saying he's made great progress are missing.

    Whole thing comes off whiny, rubs me the wrong way.

    And, frankly, his most recent piece for 105theticket.com ain't that good. I wouldn't bring it up, but he made such a stink about how he deserved to get a paying job, but this isn't quality writing. If I were his editor, and he filed this, I'd absolutely be asking for rewrite. http://bit.ly/1pddhSf
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page