Kieran Doody is GRV Media’s Director and Head of Editorial SEO.
I’ve been speaking to a lot of students and recent graduates this week, many of them asking for tips on how to stand out in such a crowded market or what they can do to kickstart their career, so I thought I’d share what I’ve been suggesting here.
Some of this may seem harsh, and some of it may be stuff you’ve heard before, but as someone who struggled to break into the industry initially, I think I can share some pointers to help people get their foot in the door. Apologies, it’s quite a long one.
1. Is Sports Journalism Really For You?
The dream of being paid to cover your favourite sport sounds great but it’s not the glamorous role you think it might be, especially early on in your career. People usually get into this game because they love sport whether that be playing it or watching it.
If you’re serious about a career in sports journalism you won’t be able to attend every game for your favourite team, you won’t be able to commit to playing every weekend. Sport happens at unsociable times, it means working nights and most weekends, usually working remotely, you will most likely be working when your family and friends are enjoying days out or down the pub.
If you do work at events it’s unlikely to be at big Premier League clubs or international tennis events initially. It will be at freezing cold lower level press boxes, sitting in press conferences conducted in a broom cupboard. Likely covering a sport you’re not particularly interested in. You have to earn your stripes before you get those dream positions in most cases.
You will need to sacrifice your social life, you’re unlikely to cover your favourite teams, you may not even be covering your favourite sport.
2. Simply Having A Degree Isn’t Enough – Get Experience!
This will be tough to hear, you have worked hard to get a degree, maybe you’re the first person to get one in your family, you’ve been told throughout school that it will open doors for you, and it will in many ways, but the hard truth is anybody can get a degree and a lot of people do.
What will make you stand out is experience and a portfolio of work. This doesn’t have to be at national publishers or Sky Sports, it’s easier than ever to get your work out there. Write a blog, volunteer at local non-league clubs, ring your local paper. It all shows that you’re serious about a career in journalism.
To be completely honest, if I interview someone who has completed a three-year degree and the only experience they have is the student newspaper or university website, they’re at an instant disadvantage.
3. Learn Digital Skills
It would be great to work at a national newspaper or curate matchday programmes, but the likelihood is you will be writing for a digital audience straight out of uni, even if writing for your local paper.
You need to understand how news SEO works, you need to be able to create images, even film and edit video or record podcasts. You need to be able to understand data and spot patterns. The reality is what used to be four or five different jobs is now the minimum requirement for junior reporters. I agree, it isn’t fair but it’s the reality.
4. SEO, SEO, SEO
I’m biased here but I cannot stress enough how important it is to understand on-page SEO if you want a career in journalism. You need to understand how to write digital headlines, how to structure articles, how to write anchor text for internal links. It’s how you get the page views which, ultimately, is how you will be judged when you land your first job.
I hate to break it to you but I’m going to take a guess that what you’re being taught at uni is outdated, I’ve spoken to more than 30 students this week from different unis and people who have completed NCTJ diplomas, I haven’t heard of a single course teaching proper SEO skills other than ‘keywords in a headline’. I’ve spoken about this before, it’s a farce, students deserve better but show initiative and teach yourself. I promise you this would put you so far ahead of your peers.
There are plenty of resources out there to learn for free. YouTube videos, newsletters, even Google release regular guidance.
Barry Adams’ SEO for Google News is a great place to start for what it’s worth.
5. Consume Media
This sounds a ridiculous statement to make, if you’re an aspiring sports journalist surely you read the news? Not always the case.
It is clear as day when someone doesn’t read sports content. Their content choices are outdated, they lack creativity and they are generally poorer writers.
Uni may teach you how to write a match report for example, but look around at coverage, who is actually producing out-and-out match reports online anymore other than BBC Sport and a few nationals? People see highlights on their phones as they happen – they don’t need to read an article telling them what happened, they already know!
Those who are successful in this industry consume social media, podcasts, tv, radio, books and or articles all of the time, if they’re not writing about the news, they’re consuming the news, keeping on top of the latest updates and thinking ahead for when they next start a shift to write even more news. It’s as exhausting as it sounds, I’m not saying work 24/7 but to really do your job you need to be a natural consumer of news.
6. Build A Personal Brand
I completely agree, X (Twitter) is a cesspit, Facebook is boring, LinkedIn is unbearable but as someone who works in media, you have to go out and meet your audience and potential employers!
Share your work online, build relationships with your audience and get involved in fan discussions. Trust is a big thing in modern-day journalism, sports fans want to know the person covering their club, Google also wants to see that content is human-generated.
It baffles me how many students and young reporters I speak to say they “don’t have social media”. You need to, it’s as simple as that.
Go and look at the biggest names in this game and look at their social media following. Share your thoughts on stories, make yourself an authoritative voice in that space. It will help in what you are doing now, and will help even more long-term in your career.
7. Network
You will naturally network and build contacts in the industry as you go out and gain experience.
I don’t particularly like the word networking, it’s a flashy way of saying be chatty with people in my opinion. Just be a nice, approachable person people remember, and I don’t just mean potential employers or people you’re trying to impress.
Build relationships with everyone you meet, you will be amazed where stories can come from. The person you’re sat next to in your class could one day work for a club’s media department. The person you’re interviewing for a small story for a uni project could one day be representing Team GB. The hotel receptionist might let you know that a certain player is staying at a hotel next to the training ground. The old man in your local pub who you say hello to could secretly be a shareholder in a club and give you updates.
For all of the digital skills I bang on about above, sometimes it’s just an old-fashioned natter that can get you ahead.
