Request: Cover an NFL Team for Fanhouse (Experienced Sportswriters Only)
ASSIGNMENT TYPE: REQUEST FOR PITCH
If you are interested in this assignment, please send us an e-mail as described below. We'll e-mail you back if we want you to proceed. Do not press “Claim this” until year hear back from us.
Site: Fanhouse.com
AOL is looking for experienced sportswriters to write regular updates on pro football teams in the from the middle of the summer through the playoffs. Each writer will be assigned to one team or possibly a small group of teams. Your work will appear in an expanded NFL section on Fanhouse.com, AOL’s rapidly growing sports news site.
You will write several times a week in the preseason and daily during the regular season. The focus will be on fast, short blog posts, that keep up with all the latest news from the team and its players. You’ll summarize, link to, and briefly analyze official announcements and news coverage from around the Web, selecting articles, photos and videos of interest to readers.
The style will be that of a newspaper sports section: lively yet fair and based on facts. These posts are not commentary, opinion nor a fan blog. The basic assignment does not involve original reporting, but there is the possibility to add additional coverage of games, practices and other events as our relationship develops.
This is meant to be steady, but part time work. So it’s fine if you have another journalism job or freelance clients related to the team, so long as you can keep up with what we need. We’d also prefer writers to be located in the city of the team they cover, but that’s not required.
We’re looking for someone with at least three years of significant sports writing experience, demonstrated writing skill, and knowledge of football. Writers who have experience covering a regular beat, whether sports-related or otherwise are preferred.
To start out, we’ll ask you to write a series of short items on the team’s history, background, stadium, and so on as well as profiles of the coaching staff. The fee for this assignment, which will be about 3000 words in total, will be $250.
Writers who successfully complete that assignment will be considered for the assignment of covering a team from the preseason through the playoffs. The base pay for team reporters is expected to be around $250 per week, but that may be adjusted based on experience of the reporter and the scope and frequency of the assignments.
Please don’t apply to write this history project if you are not interested in the steady assignment.
Deadline to apply: July 2 (Earlier applications are appreciated)
TO APPLY TO COVER AN NFL TEAM FOR FANHOUSE
Send an e-mail to this address: FanhouseNFL@seed.com
Include this information:
Your name, address and phone numbers
A resume with your writing background and any sports-related experience or current employment The team or teams you are prepared to cover
At least three writing samples (or links to your work on the Web)
The names and contact information of two editors that you have written for
Any other information that would be helpful
STANDARDS:
- All work must be your own and previously unpublished.
- You must disclose all financial interest or personal relationships to people and entities discussed.
- Every source you consult—person, Web site, or otherwise—must be clearly identified. Use Web links where appropriate, and append additional sources to the end of the article.
- All people quoted must be identified by full legal name and exact title. Any sources with potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed.
- All facts must be accurate and verified.
- Do not accept any tickets, merchandise, special favors or anything else of more than nominal value ($25) from anyone connected to the topic you are covering.
- You may represent yourself as working for AOL and the assigning Web site for the purpose of this assignment, but not in any other context.
The site's editor is looking for a proposal prior to choosing the writer.
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