Working in journalism/sports

[S18 RSG 429]

Hi all.

Random question, but I figure there are worse places to ask.

Do any of you have any experience of working in a journalism field (more specifically sports journalism), or have any experiences based around that industry?

I have to attend the ICE Expo in London in February to meet with a news outlet who are interested in taking me on as a full time sports/esports editor. I have no qualifications, and limited experience in the field, this has simply come about due to the work I've done for them in the past.

I just wanted to know if there are any tips you can give me about the industry, any experiences, good/bad that you've picked up over the years, or indeed anything else of relevance that could help.

Thanks in advance.

[Lauren 2259]

My dad was a sports journalist for over 30 years. That doesn't qualify me to pretend to know everything about the subject, but I did attend a good number of events with him, mainly golf as that was his passion. 

However, I have done a bit of writing and stuff for various people and had the odd thing published. I'm also currently getting into presenting rallies which fingers crossed will see me on Motors TV this year. Again that doesn't qualify me, but you need to have very good writing and interview skills. The thing is my day job is a social worker so I've got those very well covered. I think you have to be very outgoing and know how to conduct interviews and more importantly how to put a piece together. 

I've no idea if this will be particularly useful to you though! 

[S18 RSG 429]

Thanks Lauren. Some of that is actually relevant.

Luckily for me, I'm not getting into an area that relies on my interviewing skills, which I can imagine wouldn't be up to scratch.

The majority of my work will be based online, working with bookmakers and betting websites, with the idea being to provide a short overview of the upcoming event/match, to give some useful tips and advice to punters. This is already in place in some mainstream sports, but in eSports (my speciality), even the core betting markets have only recently been introduced.

The most in depth work I'll be exposed to will be writing articles for news sections of BBC Sport, Yahoo etc. covering recent, or upcoming events, and hopefully increasing interest in the industry as a whole.