A Week In The Life Of A Football Writer

I recently applied for a work placement at "The Evening Times". It started on Monday 1st September 2008 and this is how my week went.

Monday

On my first day of the placement i had to admit to being both nervous and excited.
My day wasn`t getting off to a great start when i was sat in reception till almost 10:30am but i let it go and all was explained and soon got into my first day at "The Evening Times".
I met Liz Mulgrew who is the P.A to the editor and was almost in awe as i bypassed Darryl King and Darrell Broadfoot who are well respected professianal football writers whom i read and listen to On TV/Radio/Newspapers.
I was assigned a task to work on and had to practise creating some fillers ( The small articles at the side of a page usually without picture/s), although it took me some time to settle into it and quickly got a feel for it.
My lunch hour was from 1-2pm and as i sat at my desk eating my bacon rolls and sipping my tea there wasn`t a lack of reading material as you can imagine and got to sifting through "The Evening times" and "The Herald".
After my lunch my editor for the week was busy in meetings and apologised for not properly showing me what to do, however it gave me a chance to tour the building and meet new faces.
I came back to my desk and scoured my computer for archive stories.
Overall it`s been an eventful day and althogh i was nervy to begin with, i`m relishing the rest of the week with "The newspaper that knows Glasgow better".

Tuesday

I was more relaxed on my second day as i knew some more people and knew where i was going.
I was reasonably early as i arrived at my desk at 8:40 am, Helen hadn`t arrived yet therefore i had a cup of tea and read of the paper.
I started working on some more fillers to get me into the habit and Helen(My editor) arrived at 9:30 and asked her what she wanted me to work on she assigned me a task with senior reporter Iain Lundy to go out and cover a story at the Kingston Bridge. After we got back i started research on the story filed a report and e mailed it to Iain.
I was then taken aback when one of the guys from the sports desk came over and introduced himself he asked me if i wanted to come and do some work on the sports desk, well i just about hit the roof with excitement- i mean don`t get me wrong working on the news desk was good but this was where i wanted to be and nearly messed my words up although i remained composed and calm.
I was immediately put to task to put together an article on old firm players that are away on International duty and agreed to go with a few journalists during the week and told i could get a couple of byelines out of it.
By the end of the day i was settled as a football writer and feel it`s important to make as many friends in this buisness as possible because it`s not WHAT you know, It`s WHO you know.

Wednesday

My first full day at the sports desk started brightly and got asked to write an article on the last five of Scotlands world cup qualifying campaigns and discuss their opening fixtures e.g date,Stadium,Score,Goalscorers and team line up`s then a paragraph or two about how the game went.
i was then taken during my task when football writer Matthew Lindsay asked me to accompany him to cameron house in loch lomond for a scotland press conference before the lads travel to play macedonia.
Whilst there we interviewed Kirk Broadfoot, Steven Pressley and Craig Gordon and were there for a while just generally chatting.
We made it back to the office about 12:30 and immediately got to finishing my article and e mailed it to Darrell King, If anything i should get a couple of byelines, Hopefully more.
I`m wishing this was more permanent but if i keep up the strong workload and keep impressing then you just never know.

Thursday

Started work and finished a player profile on a macedonia striker Goran Pandev, Then Darrell got me to write an article about finances between the old firm and write a few paragraphs comparing it to the takeover at manchester City and finished that at 12pm and went for a cup of team and some lunch.
When i got back i was asked to write an article on celtics last 5 opening champions league games and how they`ve fared in them.
All the lads finish at the latest of 3pm and as an early birthday present for me i recieved a case of tennents for all the work i`ve done for them this week which will be appreciated when i`m watching the Scotland game on saturday afternoon.
I`m dreading the end of the week as i really don`t want to leave now and feel i may take a step back instead of forward when i start over at "The Daily Record".

Friday

My final day at "The Evening Times" and it`s been a really quick week.
I thought it best to come in early so i can help out as much as possible whatever happens now will be left up to fate and is in the hands of the gods.
I just hope and pray that i get something, Anything, i just don`t want to leave here.