What Kind of Money Do Rivals/Scout Writers Make?

Just out of cheer curiosity, of course.

I work for my school's student media center and have a lot of interaction with the Rivals and Scout guys here at Ole Miss and I couldn't help but wonder what kind of money they make.

 

Welp, my first job out of college was spending a summer covering minor league baseball for Scout. I got paid $500. It was mostly money that came in from subscriptions. I'm sure the guys working the USC or Florida beat for Rivals make a living wage, but some of the gigs aren't too fabulous.

 

I know for a fact at Rivals that publishers of sites get paid a percentage based off advertising, hits, and subscriptions. The large sites (Florida, Texas, UNC) can get to the point where they have an actual staff, but most of the sites are for part-timers or guys who freelance.

 

Friend of mine "purchased" a Rivals site and makes enough for it to not be a complete waste of time, but that's as the "owner" of the site. He paid stringers anywhere from $20-35 per story. But lots of people who have worked for him usually end up writing for free, because they just want the "clips."

Like others have mentioned, I don't think the majority of those jobs are what you'd consider full-time gigs. You either need to have another, higher-paying job on the side, or you need to be independently wealthy.

 

I know a person who runs a Scout site. I believe he makes just enough to live off, and he does travel for the job. But he also strings as much as humanly possible.

 

I covered a major school, and there were two sites that both did very well. I know one of the guys apparently was over six figures who owned the site and he had a couple full-time staffers in the $30-ish range. The other site, which did well, too, perhaps even better subscribers wise, was also well, well over a newspaper sports writer standard rate. Maybe $50-$60K? He never told me for sure. I know that he told me if I ever wanted to jump, I could make over $40K working full-time for him.

 

I don't know how helpful this is because I wasn't actually paid by Rivals, but a few years ago I was the beat writer for Rivals site the covered a BCS conference school.

I worked for a company that owned a handful of magazines that covered major colleges. Most of the mags had a Rivals site to go with it. My paycheck came from the publishing company, not Rivals, but without getting into specifics, I made a pretty decent wage for a young sports writer. More than I make as a SE at a small daily now.

I've heard that working directly for Rivals is not the greatest, but my set up was pretty good. I wouldn't have left if my wife hadn't gotten a job in a different state.

 

You can make a pretty good living, but it's up to you to negotiate your deal. I believe the guys who work for the Alabama Rivals site make in the high five figures. Problem is, they're not reimbursed for travel, mileage or meals, so you have to factor that in as part of your salary going in ...

 

i made $31K back in the 2004-05 range work for a Rivals site ... but our company also published a magazine that was independent from the site (20 issues a year) ... it was a TON of work to do both, felt like I had two jobs ... great experience though ... we had one other full-timer for the site, as well as some stringers ... and other editors who helped with the design and copy editing of the magazine (as well as the other mags our company owned)...

At the time, we were known as the "internet guys" by the other reporters and SIDs from the school ... and that was not a complimentary term to say the least ... but the internet guys have outlasted many of the beat reporters from traditional news outlets, sadly ... i've seen all ranges of journalism with rivals and scout sites, from ultimate fan boy types to real pros who often scooped the daily newspaper guys and wrote great stories...

 

Both Rivals and Scout here at Ole Miss have a "head guy" and each of them have three guys on staff, as I recall.

 

The people who own the Rivals and Scout franchises on my beat make a lot of money. They're living comfortably.