Sports Magazines or Publications

[teeta6404]

Has anyone written any sports articles? If so where is a good place to submit them?
TIA

[*Amel*]

Do you have a specific sport in mind? What kinds of sports articles are you writing? Who is your target audience?

[teeta6404]

Football, basketball, maybe some baseball. They are mostly editorials, I want to appeal to other people in my age range 20-35. Also appealing to women a little more than men.

[OneTeam OneDream]

From my experience, its one of the most commonly sought after freelance markets. In about five years of trying, I've written about 50 articles. Most of them local, paying less than 100 bucks per article. When it comes to editorial, that's even tougher, simply because you have to convince the editor that readers WANT to hear your opinion... took me two years for my first editorial in a local/regional publication.

That said, start local, especially if your area has a specialty publication like my old area did....most daily papers are always on the lookout for "stringers" but you may not be writing about what you actually want to (high school girls' volleyball for example) and for daily papers, expect to make 50-75 bucks per.

[SpiderGal]

Doesn't ESPN have a sports mag of its own?

[teeta6404]

Originally Posted by OneTeam OneDream

From my experience, its one of the most commonly sought after freelance markets. In about five years of trying, I've written about 50 articles. Most of them local, paying less than 100 bucks per article. When it comes to editorial, that's even tougher, simply because you have to convince the editor that readers WANT to hear your opinion... took me two years for my first editorial in a local/regional publication.

That said, start local, especially if your area has a specialty publication like my old area did....most daily papers are always on the lookout for "stringers" but you may not be writing about what you actually want to (high school girls' volleyball for example) and for daily papers, expect to make 50-75 bucks per.

Thanks, I have a couple things written, and really haven't found anything yet. I'll keep going for it.

[Melina]

I moved this thread from the Trade Pubs board to the Freelancing board, because it sounded to me like the sorts of publications you are planning to target are consumer mags, not trade pubs.

[wampuscat]

Originally Posted by OneTeam OneDream

From my experience, its one of the most commonly sought after freelance markets. In about five years of trying, I've written about 50 articles. Most of them local, paying less than 100 bucks per article. When it comes to editorial, that's even tougher, simply because you have to convince the editor that readers WANT to hear your opinion... took me two years for my first editorial in a local/regional publication.

That said, start local, especially if your area has a specialty publication like my old area did....most daily papers are always on the lookout for "stringers" but you may not be writing about what you actually want to (high school girls' volleyball for example) and for daily papers, expect to make 50-75 bucks per.

I agree with this. It sounds like your stuff (editorials) might be better for a blog or e-mag. The bigger papers and major magazines generally have standard columnists and a stable of reporters and well-established freelancers. Even if you live in an area with a smaller newspaper, I'd be surprised if they'd be willing to take on editorials from a nonstaffer, unless you have some sort of proven expertise or local celebrity status. Breaking into sports journalism is tough because so many people want to write about sports, and there seem to be fewer and fewer slots to fill as newspapers struggle. (Also, if they're editorials about pro sports, you might be dead in the water unless you have a unique hook. Pro sports opinion pieces are rampant on the internet and elsewhere for free.)

You might also try something aimed at your niche market (females 20-35) that would be interested in a sports angle.

(Disclaimer: I worked at a couple of newspapers in the sports dept doing a bit of this and a bit of that for a few years. That said, I wouldn't say I'm an expert in the field.)

[OneTeam OneDream]

Originally Posted by SpiderGal

Doesn't ESPN have a sports mag of its own?

Yeah, it does. But getting into that, you would have to have

A. A ton of luck
B. A great, great, great, great exclusive that no one ever thought of.
C. Even more luck.

[cornflake]

Originally Posted by teeta6404

Football, basketball, maybe some baseball. They are mostly editorials, I want to appeal to other people in my age range 20-35. Also appealing to women a little more than men.

As someone else said, try putting up a blog or asking someone who has a blog or small sports site with some traffic if they'd be interested in some content.

Without a name or rep or reason, you're going to have beyond a hard time selling editorials to an actual mag or big-name pub. Their editorials are from their own writers or other known quantities.