1735 DeSales Street, NW Washington DC 20036!…I still remember it, some forty years later after i started applying for my first television job…That was the address i’d send my three quarter inch tape to, never to see it again…The DeSales Street address was where Broadcasting Magazine was located, literally the ONLY classified page for on air jobs…And if that wasn’t bad enough, my tapes went to a box number so i didn’t even know where the jobs were!
Thanks to websites like TVJOBS.Com and Journalismjobs.com, to name a couple, the process is much easier now…
One of the advantages of starting out in a smaller market, as scary and as unattractive that might be, is that you’ll often time find yourself the only one covering the event…I can’t tell you how many times spectators would come up to me in my first job at Malden Cablevision and ask initially “Who are you shooting for” which then segued to “When is this gonna be on?”….and eventually translated into “Hey, you’re the guy from Malden Cable, thanks for doing our game”…”Parents still want to read about their kids and neighbors in their hometown”, Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal told our recent Boston University Sports Journalism Seminar class, “Some of the best stories I’ve ever written were because people wanted to share them”…
Joining MacPherson was Catherine Donovan, Executive Producer at the Western Mass News Organization that oversees three TV stations in Springfield, ABC 40, Fox 6 and CBS 3….Even with a population of over 150,000, Donovan knows where their audience is, “Friday they (the sports guys) go out and do ten to twelve football games…and the parents love it!…they want to see their kids”…
It’s really simple…ESPN, FoxSports, The Boston Globe aren’t showing up to cover the games played in the markets where you’ll start…use that to your advantage…
Now while maybe it’s easier to find the jobs, I’ve gained an appreciation for the hard work it takes to do that job now… Donovan lays it right out there. “Going into this you’re going to want to love it”…A typical day for a Multi Media Journalist (MMJ) at her station sounds daunting. “They’re responsible for coming up with at least three story ideas, their own and not from the newspaper or our competitors. You get assigned and make your calls, setting up your interviews. You’re getting your gear together, you’re packing up your car and going to your interviews. You’re gathering your interviews, your video, your sound. You’re in touch with the assignment desk throughout the day. Every reporter is required to do a Facebook Live hit (at least 5 minutes). You’re sending back photos of their stories. You’re re-posting stories to your personal webpages. Once you’ve gathered everything you might write and edit in the field, feed it back. You get your scripts approved (by Donovan) and then go “live”. I might add that includes shooting the live shot by yourself…And if the story is big enough, as in the case of Aaron Hernandez, you might even do a series of live shots for other stations around the country…And don’t forget to Tweet while you’re at it…
Bottom Line, you’re working hard…
Which brings us to a question for MacPherson courtesy of Shelby Reardon…”What was your biggest struggle in your first job”…”Some of it is just getting your feet under you and knowing what’s going on, not just like who won last week.”
It says here, you’re ready…time to hit the bricks…
9 Comments
Shelby Reardon and Marisa Ingemi posted on April 24, 2017 at 2:17 pm
https://soundcloud.com/user-128935005/the-w-column-episode-8-the-first-job Marisa and I discussing this weeks seminar about getting that first job.
Chris Picher and Jarett Leonard posted on April 25, 2017 at 2:51 pm
Seminar Strategists Episode 10: https://soundcloud.com/jarett-leonard/seminar-strategists-episode-10-getting-that-first-job
Jake Reiser posted on April 26, 2017 at 1:01 pm
To Be Frank hits double digits!
https://youtu.be/uh6XBFdLcYk
Eric and Dave Podcast posted on April 26, 2017 at 4:25 pm
https://soundcloud.com/user-691909582/dave-and-eric-podcast
Curtis Stoychoff posted on April 26, 2017 at 4:32 pm
Listening to Catherine Donovan give a description of what a Multi Media Journalist, or MMJ, does at her station could definitely come across as a lot. But if you take a second to think about it, it sounds like she’s describing any one of the number of classes we have taken here at BU. “Responsible for coming up with story ideas,” and “setting up your own interviews,” both sound like JO310 Beat Reporting. “Gathering your interviews, your video, your sound,” sounds like JO351 Reporting with Audio and Video. So while it may seem intimidating, I think we should all go into it with confidence because while it may be a lot of work, we’ve been doing stuff like this for multiple years now and definitely know how to do it effectively.
Something I feel like will be a bit harder is “getting your feet under you” and getting familiar with the area in which you end up covering. The road to doing this has definitely been laid out for us: talk to the guy who had your job before you, talk to the locals, read everything that’s been written about your beat, do any other research you can think of. There are just definitely more curveballs that could be thrown at you here than there are with the actual work of doing the job.
This seminar was important because it once again gave us some more insight as to what it’s like to get that first job. Especially at a time like today with ESPN announcing another hundred or so layoffs, it’s clear that this path is definitely going to be the easiest one to follow. Go to that small market, get your feet wet, and work your way up from there. Hopefully by then ESPN will get it together.
Daniel Choi posted on April 26, 2017 at 5:50 pm
“Dynamic change demands an increased focus on versatility and value, and as a result, we have been engaged in the challenging process of determining the talent – anchors, analysts, reporters, writers and those who handle play-by-play – necessary to meet those demands.”
– ESPN President John Skipper
Out goes the one-dimensional and in comes the versatile. And rapid technological advancements of mainstream acceptability have contributed to this paradigm shift. A growing number of news networks now rely on analytics to shape their daily programming. If it’s trending on Twitter, it’ll likely be the topic of discussion until it’s surpassed by another. Probably explains why the MLB and NHL are rarely covered on nationally televised shows. And why Colin Kaepernick and Tim Tebow received greater media scrutiny as their on-field time trended in the opposite direction. We now have real-time data. The largest networks use it to give the people what they want, an assessment that is largely based on what the people are talking about. And the people are a diverse group with more versatile devices at their disposal.
The versatility to which Skipper speaks about likely concerns the platforms through which we consume infotainment. We’re now tethered to smartphones; to tablets; to laptops. And less reliant on television sets; on radio boxes; on ink and paper. There’s a glaring difference between the two groups: versatility. With a smartphone or tablet or laptop, we can catch up on the news; watch or listen to live or on-demand shows and films; read and draft papers; and catch up with family, friends and the public. What can we do with a television set? Watch. What about radio boxes? Listen. And ink and paper? Write and read.
So for that first job – in addition to complying with the responsibilities detailed in the job description – learning previously unexplored topics and perspectives, and engaging with new technological frontiers are highly advised. It may not be required, but increased versatility is certainly value added.
Channing Curtis posted on April 26, 2017 at 8:30 pm
Finding your first job is almost always discouraging, regardless of the field you’re trying to enter in to. You submit dozens of resumes to employers hoping that for some reason yours stands out in the pile. For future broadcast journalists, the scrutiny can be even worse. Not only do we have to have great resumes but we have to have a certain look, certain sound, and a certain something that makes us come alive on the screen. It’s something that is truly subjective. Where one producer may love us, another may think we’re nothing but a waste of their time.
With today’s “one man band” emphasis, it’s now even tougher to get that first job. Now, not only do we have to have a good on camera presence but we must be able to shoot, edit, produce, write copy, have a good twitter following and an overall knowledge of posting videos to social media. I’ve had people ask me if I knew web coding while applying to an on-air position. It seems a bit much but now with stations doing cut backs, it makes since that they skimp somewhere.
Today 100 people were laid off at ESPN. Journalists that I’ve followed for years such as Ed Werder and Calvin Watkins lost their jobs today. It’s a bit discouraging for someone who views ESPN as the mecca of sports journalism. It’s curious to me that the on-air talent that were fired were mostly “traditional” and not the “talking heads” that you see on shows such as First Take.
Now with online mediums becoming more and more popular, budding journalists are forced to learn more skills to stay relevant. I’m anxious to see what the next new media trends will bring to the journalism world and how that will impact the job market.
Dylan Jones posted on April 26, 2017 at 9:30 pm
The sports journalism industry is a difficult one to get into. This is something we’ve heard basically in every seminar so far, and with ESPN laying off 100 people today, the point has been nailed home in all of our minds.
In our most recent seminar, Brian MacPherson and Catherine Donovan spoke to us about the difficulties of getting into the industry, and furthermore, the difficulties of growing once you get in. We’ve heard a lot about how “you really need to want it”, a point Donovan rammed home in her description of her first job and how much work she does daily. We’ve also heard a lot that we’re likely starting in a small market, a point that MacPherson talked about in his time working in Minnesota. To his credit, he put a positive spin on it, talking about how the smaller towns are people that actually want their story to be told, because nobody has told it before, which is a great point. Even the most talented of journalists can’t find another way to write about how Dustin Pedroia is this gritty, hardworking, leader of the Red Sox.
I agree with the assessment that just because there are more websites that post jobs in sports journalism now, that doesn’t mean that they’re easier to get. In fact, I’d argue it makes for more competition because it’s easier for everyone to apply, making it a bigger pool of applicants, and harder to stand out. Combine that with Donovan’s description of just what today’s first job requires and you could argue it may in fact be harder today, although I think we can both agree in either time period it wasn’t easy.
Pulling it all together, clearly what people want nowadays is for someone to be versatile. You can’t just write, you can’t just do radio, you can’t just shoot film or do play-by-play. If you really want to stand out and be valuable, you need to be able to do a wide range of things for your employer. While I don’t think that’s a trend that is restricted to journalism, it’s amplified considering the difficulty of getting into the industry, and limited number of positions.
As a result, it was nice to hear Donovan and MacPherson be so frank about the difficulty of getting into the industry, and the hard times. There wasn’t any covering it up or trying to frame it a certain way, but rather they embrace the challenge of getting in and climbing up in the journalism industry. If we all want to be journalists someday, we’ll have to embrace that challenge too, and hopefully not end up as a PA on a Boston news show.
Stephanie Schalago posted on April 27, 2017 at 10:19 am
Finding a job is terrifying. No one tells you how to do it really. What could be seen as a great cover letter and resume to one person, could be absolute trash to the next. One person may think you have a good reel, and the next would laugh at you. There’s no recipe for perfection. There’s no easy way to get a job. You could apply to 100s of them, and only hear back from one. It’s quite discouraging.
I received my job from my internship. I interned for the station I work for over a year, and now I am an employed producer…part time. I also recently found out that I won’t be made full time after graduation. A very discouraging thing to hear. So I am also on the job hunt. Websites like journalism jobs, indeed, and tv jobs make it easy to apply… but that also means it makes it easy to have more competition. Everyone can find these jobs, so now everyone is applying for them. How can you stand out? It’s tough. Like Dylan said, just because there are more websites out there, doesn’t mean it’s any easier.
When you finally land that interview, you start thinking of the after. Like Catherine said, they don’t choose you based on looks (for women that is). But they give you a budget to go get your hair done a certain way, and everyone ends up looking the same because you have to go to the same hairdresser, buy your clothes from the same store, have your nails a certain color etc. In the end, yes they are hiring based on looks, and if you don’t already fit that look… they’ll make you look it. It’s terrifying to think I need to look and be a certain way in order to get a job. But that’s the only way I would be able to stand out.