Once the path into a career in sports journalism was straightforward. You began in local media, built up confidence, skills and a portfolio and began to explore the openings on the national stage. Now, however, the landscape has changed dramatically with social media, online publications and podcasters crowding the airways.
Here we look at the changes and how to navigate the new world of sports journalism.
How to Get Started
First of all you should be exploring journalism courses if you are thinking of becoming a sports journalist. You will have to examine courses to ensure that they have a sports journalism element, and you will find information online at sites such as https://schoolofjournalism.co.uk/.
Next you should be looking at advertisements for junior recruits into the industry. Here you may have to be proactive, since a recent survey showed that entry-level posts were generally in decline, with less than 10% of ads relating to this kind of position, suggesting a lack of opportunities into the field.
Traditional vs New Opportunities
As mentioned above, the pathway into traditional media organisations is both narrowing and crowded with new graduates. The good news, however, is that there are plenty of opportunities in new areas such as sports clubs and sporting administration organisations who are recruiting journalists into newly created positions.
These changes have also forced educators to redesign their curricula to reflect the new job landscape. Core journalistic standards still have to be maintained, but some of the new posts have more to do with communications rather than news reporting or feature writing, although the latter skills can be required. For example, working in a sports club, you will be posting news on players or competitors or profiling them.
These positions also involve accepting that the role of journalists is changing, as posts such as in-house journalist, social media specialist and online content editor are positions which regularly appear in the trade press online and on employment sites.
Never lose sight of the fact that a solid training in journalism remains the key to landing one of these posts.
