Sports Journalism Jobs Overview

“The media can create heroes and heroines, restructure the rules of the game, expose corruption or elevate an athlete, a team or an institution to become an American tradition.

The power of selection in coverage and interpretation of the event rests with sports journalists and media organizations.

The choices they make ultimately play a role in how all of us view a particular athlete, a team or a sport.” – from the Introduction to Media Relations in Sport, 1st Edition by William Nichols, Patrick Moynahan, Allan Hall and Janis Taylor; published by Fitness Information Technology, West Virginia University.

Writing About Sports Rocks!

Sports journalism is power, responsibility, fast-paced, demanding — a lot of hard work. It’s also great fun! The benefits include box seats at the games, meeting sports stars, getting to know the people who manage the major league teams or train the Olympic athletes – travel, fame, and hearing words of appreciation from your own fans. As for the pay…it varies as wildly as possible among all the career tracks, jobs and places in which sports journalists can find themselves.

Writing for the local small-town newspaper or broadcasting the Minor League Baseball games is a great way to enjoy close-up sports action and have a wonderful lifestyle. Making a living there may be a problem, though. Magazine sports journalists generally earn higher salaries, and Internet and broadcast sports journalists can do very well.

When you have a unique style that goes over with producers and fans, you can follow in Howard Coselle’s footsteps and practically name your own price.

Media Bistro, an international community of all kinds of media people, ran a survey of salaries.

With membership online, you can look up salaries by region of the country, industry and job title. Check it out here

Other ways to look into the potential pay for the kind of sports journalism you’re considering include taking journalism at a college or trade school, and talking with your instructors, counselors and others in the field about your interests. You can also browse online to look into the jobs available right now (following the links on this site).

Here are some jobs in sports journalism you might see listed in our jobs database on any given day:

• Sports Marketing Associate, Luxury Goods, New York, NY
• Classified Account Executive, Sports Business Journal
• Assistant Night Sports Editor, The Herald
• Freelance Copy Editor
• Traffic Specialist, Digital Ad Ops, Sports, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
• Acquisitions Editor – Sports and Fitness, Human Kinetics, Inc. Champaign, IL, USA
• Assistant Copywriter, Town Sports International

Career Resources

Using JobMonkey you’ll find out where to look for writing job opportunities in your own area of specialization.

If you start a sports journalism career, join Media Bistro for a good time, continuing education and resources, including a job bank for positions with the top media companies. Parties in London, Paris, Seattle and elsewhere are for media people only – no students or interns – and are just for fun – no networking!

The American Press Institute provides resources such as this page of links to Sports Journalism Organizations, as well as help for working sports journalists

Welcome to the world of sports!