Thanks again for the kind words guys, much appreciated...
Bj... thats interesting... next year I might become the first person in Kansan history to turn down the basketball beat for the football beat...
Curious to get your perspective... would you take a beat that has more prestige and would be read more (basketball) or would you take one that you have far more interest in and will devote more passion to (football)?
I am a fan of basketball, and certainly love KU's team... but I am the only diehard football fan on the campus... so I'm kinda torn about what to go after...
I should preface all of this with the fact that I became so jaded with the industry as a whole that I am now in law school and out of writing entirely...
Going with football over bball is not a bad move in terms of career prospects. It may be an advantage. At a program like KU, football is less under the gun so your chances of breaking something is better. That's something I learned as time went by... you can be the best reporter ever, but if some schmuck across the street that writes like a 10-year old breaks a big story, he's considered the future star. But in all honestly, the best thing to do is go after your beat as best you can, and when you are covering games and at pressers, etc., try to get to know as many of the other reporters as you can. Yes, some will be complete pricks, but many will not. Contacts mean the world, both in terms of future job hookups and simply advice on how to get better at your job.
Keep in mind that in this day and age the newspaper industry is getting MURDERED by the internet, causing nationwide cuts and downsizing. The more aggressive the reporter, the better. So the better name you can make for yourself, the better your job prospects will be. Granted, this is not absolute, but it's something to think about.
