Trying to decide if I'm suited for journalism!

I like writing. I like covering sports. I like combining them into one.
The problem I'm having is that I'm just starting. So I'm doing what everyone does when they first start: working myself to the bone for 23,000 a year with little appreciation or help.
The only thing that keeps me going right now is that I keep telling myself it'll get better. I keep dreaming of that OU beat writer job at the Dallas Morning News or the Tulsa World. Or some other nice job covering a D1 college team. I know that's much easier said than done but that's my ultimate goal.
Who knows.....I may end up as SE at a CNHI paper someday and that's as far as I go.

The main problem I have is that I'm family oriented, that may just be because I'm young and was accustomed to my parents and friends. But, I find it very hard right now to live 4 hours from my 2 best friends in the world and my family. The only thing that helps me there is my fiance being here with me. And I know in this business it'll only get worse. But, I keep thinking when I'm happier with the job then I'll be happier with where I'm living. That and I live in BFE.

Plus I don't know what I'd do. I went through college thinking only of one thing: being a sportswriter. I have no clue what else I'd even try to do! And I don't want my degree to go to waste.

 

You ought to be enthused and passionate about whatever it is you do for a living, whether it's being a journalist, a florist, an accountant or a waiter. There are way too many people in the world who get up every day and can't stomach what they have to do for the eight hours that bring home a paycheck.

 

OK, here is my story.

I decided in college that sportswriting seemed like a decent idea because I have always had this other worldly (to others) knowledge of sports.

I was able to secure my first clips writing for my school paper. I edged out a good number of candidates at the big time DI college daily, and I also was stringing of an out of town newspaper when their local high schoolers came to town. The portfolio was growing.

My senior year, I was reccommended for a public relations internship for a professional sports team. Yes, it was one of the big three sports. I was able to meet childhood heroes and make contacts with many top writers. I went to everything they attended and just kept them happy. I also sat in as a third ear to as many interviews as possible and stepped in if anything ever started to get a little out of hand. This was the time of my life.

Possibly my biggest career mistake, other than a release with a few typos in it (self-editing is something I am awful at to say the least), was moving to the East Coast where my parents were living and leaving all of my contacts in the Southwest.

Once East, I caught on with a small SID office, and I later left that to become a sports editor of a small daily (15,000 circ.). I was paid nothing, but I wrote, edited, took pictures, designed and lord knows what else for $300 per week. I left that paper for another and kept trying to work my way up the ladder. After a few papers and some moving, I was talking with a buddy on Christmas afternoon, and I knew that I had to get to work that night for the next day's paper. It was then that I knew that I could never continue as a sports writer and have a family. The hours sucked and the pay was worse. I also stopped liking sports to a noticable degree.

I went back to school and earned my teaching certification.

At 29 moved to Virginia to teach and did a little stringing on the side. I also coached high school basketball and became a certified referee in soccer, basketball and baseball.

I still had the problem of not quite earning what I wanted to earn. So I went back to school for my master's degree. I'm not going to divulge what I do, but it is in an administrative capacity. No I am not a principal.

My wife works in the health industry, and we are expecting our first child in February. I am 38, and I live in a very nice house in a very nice subdivision. Our combined salaries are over six figures. We do not worry about crime, and my children will go to a good school and possibly swim on the subdivision's swim team. I cannot see any of this happening if I was still a sports writer.

My job is mundane and very political. I have passion for my job, but I have a boss that does not want me to be passionate because it makes him look bad. I turn the other cheek a lot at what I see, and this does not make me feel good. He retires in a year and half and if things do not improve by then, I will try to look for work elsewhere. I cannot see any of this happening if I was still a sports writer.

This is how things have turned out for me.

A lot of pluses, but some minuses.

And I would probably do it again, not changing a thing. That includes doing sportswriting for a spell.

 

Hmmm. You know you mentioned public relations for a sports team.
If you're a decently talented sports writer is that a possible career avenue? I assume the pay is better than in sports writing and every SID or sports PR person I've met has made it sound like fun. Well I know it's stressful but it seems just a bit less stressful than writing.

 

Have you met many SIDs or sports PR persons? It's an even more thankless job than ours. We answer to an editor or a publisher or an editorial board that has no respect for us or what we do. We deal with athletes who, if they saw us on fire, would more often than not step over us instead of rescuing us with an R. Kelly manuerver (sp?).

These guys and gals typically get the same respect, or lack thereof, except they answer to people far more powerful than an editor or a publisher--athletic director, president, general manager, team owner--and are forced to deal with the athletes behind closed doors, where there's no need to put on a smiley face.

You leave the park and you're pissed and you're tired and it's been a long day and you can go home and forget about it. Meanwhile, the SID or PR guy is pissed and tired and at the end of a long day and he's still at the park or venue. If your editor blows and you're on a beat, you can probably avoid him more often than not. The SID or PR guy has his nemesis looking over his shoulder 24/7/365.

And when a new AD or president or GM comes in, guess what? They're almost surely going to want their own PR guy in there. The only way to ensure your security is, as a PR friend of mine says, to know where the bodies are buried. And is that really a good way to make a living? Keep me on board because I know where the bodies are buried?

Don't be fooled. PR is just as thorny as journalism.

 

If you want to do PR writing, look for a (non-sports) position within a university. Academia is pretty laid-back, normal hours, and the pay tends to be pretty decent compared to newspapers. It's also usually a less adversarial relationship with the media if you're in an academic department (as opposed to the chancellor's office), since most of your media dealings would be helping a reporter get in touch with the expert they need for their story, or they're reporting about the latest scientific finding by one of your researchers (i.e.: generally positive news). You can always string on the side if you want to stay close to sportswriting.

 

I have a friend that left the biz for an advertising gig, but he still strings for the newspaper Friday nights for High School Football & Basketball games. He is very happy. He is making more money, and he still gets to write sports.

 

You are right about the SID/PR thing in that what you write will never be your own. It will changed and crafted to meet another person's needs. No getting around that.

As far as the athletes treating you like crap, I never saw that. I hung out with a few of them in social settings. I played hoops with them at lunch. Heck, I even dressed for the occasional practice if the college hoops coach needed another body. I was treated with respect because the league told them. Saying no to your PR guy in the 1990s just did not happen. I do not know what it is like now.

The athlete knows the PR guy is there for them.

 

I must say, when I looked at the thread title and saw the exclamation mark, I thought, "I don't think this guy is suited for journalism."

 

I got tired of the bullshit. I had lying motherfucker of a ME that eventually got fired because he couldn't keep employees. Those of who stayed did so only because we needed the pay check. It was a badge of honor that we survived him, but I was also tired of being viewed as a necessary evil that cost too much money. There was no respect for the work I did.

About a year ago, the college writer left, and I was assigned the beat. Sounds great, right? Well, I would get no raise. I would have to change my schedule and lose the only day off I got with my wife. I would not be able to travel to cover the team. When the team hit the road, I had to continue high school coverage, even though there were two other writers on the beat.

I turned it down, but I was told that I had no choice. I "make too much to cover high school sports."

So I said fuck it. To be fair, I'm not an A-list talent. I'm a strong news reporter with a few years of crime and business beats and a few years of high school sports. I applied for jobs and quickly learned I wasn't good enough to move up to a "better" paper. The only offers I received were from shit holes like the one I had just quit. So I left the business. I was bitter. I quit writing, because I could no longer enjoy it. I closed a previous account here. I cut myself off completely and picked up and moved away.

Now, I'm helping my father-in-law run his store. I make comfortable money, I work 40 hours per week. I still work Saturdays because it's busy, but I get three weeks of paid vacation and every holiday off paid. I got over my bitterness and now I string high school football gamers for the small daily.

I came back here because I can't help but to be sucked in by the discussions. I don't know if this helped, but it felt good to get it off my chest.