Jumping to news

[House]

Hi, just wanted to fish for some advice.

I've been out of school for over two years now and working in sports, doing desk work and writing, but I'm looking at going to the news side. I haven't done GA work since college, so I'll probably need to start modest again in terms of paper size. I'm not sure. I'm in the Pacific Northwest right now (although it's not home), but was thinking about applying to Aberdeen, Wa. Anybody know anything about it? And has anybody gotten tired of sports and made the jump to news?

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Company: The Daily World
Position:
Openings for two reporters
Location:
Aberdeen, Washington St.
Job Status: Full-time
Salary: Not Specified
Ad Expires:
July 11, 2006
Job ID: 646053
Website: http://thedailyworld.com

Description:
The Daily World at Aberdeen has openings for two reporters. A married couple in the newsroom is moving on, leaving two positions open. The Daily World is a 14,000-circulation daily newspaper 20 miles from the Washington Coast and along the southern edge of the Olympic Peninsula. We are looking for people who write with clarity and spark and leave readers satisfied they got the full story. One of the positions is likely to involve some page design using InDesign.
The Daily World offers medical and dental benefits and a 401(K) retirement plan.

Send a cover letter, resume, writing samples and page design samples if you have them, to Managing Editor Doug Barker, Box 269, Aberdeen, WA 98520. email: [email protected]

 

[Flash]

Don't do it! Just kidding, while sort of. I left sports for five months, when I was at a paper on a contract basis (was covering a mat leave position in sports and when that ended, I was covered mat leaves on the news side).
Just make sure you want to leave the game for blood and guts, school board meetings and real-world politics. After five months, when the phone rang offering me my current job, I couldn't say yes fast enough.

 

[spaceman]

True nuff. I did a stint on news side. After a month of double checking the daily body count in Iraq, I'd had enough.

 

[cougargirl]

Don't do it! Just kidding, while sort of. I left sports for five months, when I was at a paper on a contract basis (was covering a mat leave position in sports and when that ended, I was covered mat leaves on the news side).
Just make sure you want to leave the game for blood and guts, school board meetings and real-world politics. After five months, when the phone rang offering me my current job, I couldn't say yes fast enough.

I did a similar thing - took a transfer in the chain to go from sports to the news desk for six months. I got some good experience working nights and sifted through more than my fair share of police logs, school board stories, elections and obituaries, and worked with plenty of reporters. But when I went back to sports - and I also couldn't do it fast enough - I got a different insight on the craft. I was more detail-oriented as a reporter and had a better understanding of what the editors/department heads went through.

 

[Del_B_Vista]

I'm on my second stint on the news-side. After the first, which I kinda had forced on me, I realized it helped a lot of my reporting skills. This trip is voluntary, and I'm learning again. I'll be back in sports some day, but these trips have been good for me.

The bigger question is how difficult to get back in sports once you shift over. That's an entirely different question, one that I have my suspicions on, but not enough personal experience to offer advice on.


EDIT: Not quite the impact for the DBV1K post that I'd hoped, but it wasn't a post pad, so I got that going for me. And now that I've got 1,000 posts, I can refer to myself in the third person, right?

 

[Flash]

That's funny. Because my city editors told me my years of sports reporting made me one of their better news writer ... able to give more colour to a story, instead of just giving the facts.

 

[OnTheRiver]

I've hit the trifecta... started in sports (which helped writing), moved to news (which helped the reporting), now in features. (Which helped my family life -- ba-zing!)


If there's anything I'd recommend to the newbies regarding this line of discussion, it's this: Do 8-10 weeks on the police beat somewhere, sometime. It'll help your fact-finding skills, your source-development tactics and your spine. Getting the family members of a murder victim to talk to you is an unfortunate (though often necessary) exercise that will enhance both your "people" skills and serve as an occasional reminder that most other stories, to hammer the ol' cliche, aren't really "life or death."

 

[PCLoadLetter]

And as for Aberdeen...

Kurt Cobain's hometown. And if you visit, Cobain's life and (especially) death will suddenly make a whole lot more sense to you.

It's a bit gloomy.

 

[House]

Thanks for the advice.

I'm not sure if it would be a permanent switch. Most likely not. I just realized that I should learn the basics of news reporting for a bigger sports beat one day. As it stands at my place, if a coach is locked up for battery, etc., we don't touch it. It goes to the news side. I know at bigger places, I'll need to know my ****.

Although I'm originally from the South, I've grown fond of the Pacific Northwest. And Kurt Cobain? I wasn't into grunge.

 

[Tarheel316]

I've gone over to the news side twice. Won't do it again.

 

[DyePack]

If you do switch over to news, be sure to mention that every night in sports is like election night, and then ask if the editors are going to order pizza for everyone.

You'll be a smashing hit right from the start.

 

[WSKY]

Done the news thing, not my cup of tea, however, it's a great way to learn a bunch more in the business. Do it, and if you don't like it, take what you leanred and move on.

 

[House]

Good advice there. Thanks.

 

[HeinekenMan]

I have been deeply involved in both, and it's tough to compare.

One benefit of the news side is that you get to cover the big stories.

One drawback is that it's a lot of friggin' work and the stakes can be higher. You might print that Johnson scored 29 points when you meant to put that Smith scored 29 points. Sure, that's a mistake, and you may get your ass chewed over it. But it's not the same as putting that Johnson was arrested on cocaine charges. So, you really have to check your facts and dig for information on the news side.

And that's really what makes sports a nice, comfortable place. Sure, you have to do some serious work in sports as well. It's not all fun and games (but mostly). I can tell you, however, it's a lot easier to get the losing coach to talk after the game than it is to get the city councilman who is being investigated by the feds to talk.

 

[Terd Ferguson]

I've done both and I"m thankful for both. I didn't enjoy news all that much, but there were definitely some benefits. That one year as a news reporter way way down on the bottom of my resume (it's in chronological order) is the No. 1 thing prospective employers have noticed about my resume during interviews. Every single one of them. All have had varying leadership styles, varying levels of compentency, but all have noticed I did time in news and been happy because of it.

Should you ever go back to sports you will be thankful for the reporting skills you pick up on the news side.

Should you remain in news, you'll be thankful for the writing style you picked up in sports. You won't feel the need to follow a formula and be boring.

It's a move, even if you move back to sports, that can do nothing but help you down the line.

 

[friend of the friendless]

Sirs, Madames,

For me going to news wasn't my choice but it was medicine. It tasted ****ty, made me better. Now I work in and out of sports by choice.

YHS, etc

 

[DyePack]

One drawback is that it's a lot of friggin' work and the stakes can be higher. You might print that Johnson scored 29 points when you meant to put that Smith scored 29 points. Sure, that's a mistake, and you may get your ass chewed over it. But it's not the same as putting that Johnson was arrested on cocaine charges. So, you really have to check your facts and dig for information on the news side.

You can't get times of events wrong on an almost daily basis, either.

There's another difference.

 

[bballscribe]

The bigger question is how difficult to get back in sports once you shift over. That's an entirely different question, one that I have my suspicions on, but not enough personal experience to offer advice on.

I've done a few weeks on the news side as well. It was tedious but not nearly as bad as I imagined. However, I'm in the midst of a job change and the next opening would be primarily as a news reporter but still do some sport assignments here and there. It's also for a much bigger paper than the one I'm at now. So should I stay where I am, mired wholeheartedly in sports, or try the switch, even though my ultimate goal is to be a sportswriter for a major daily, not a news reporter.

 

[boots]

I've done news. I've done sports. To me, there IS NO difference. People like to feed that bullhit in your head but here' the gist of it, if you are a professional journalist, you should be able to handle homicide just as easily as you would handle a prep game. It's not like you are making a rocket for NASA.

 

[bballscribe]

I've done news. I've done sports. To me, there IS NO difference. People like to feed that bullhit in your head but here' the gist of it, if you are a professional journalist, you should be able to handle homicide just as easily as you would handle a prep game. It's not like you are making a rocket for NASA.

I agree. There is no difference. But, Boots, would most employers look at it from your perspective, or just take the guy who has more experience in sports while I might have more experience in news, with about 40% sports?