How To Become An Assistant Sports Editor: What It Is and Career Path

What is an assistant sports editor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Allison Harl Ph.D.

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an assistant sports editor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $17.57 an hour? That's $36,551 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -5% and produce -5,500 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to an assistant sports editor?

Allison Harl Ph.D.

Associate Professor of English English Program Coordinator, Ferrum College

Develop as many multimedia skills as possible. Writing in the 21st century is about visual rhetoric as well as just words on a page.

ScoreAssistant Sports EditorUS Average

Salary

2.9

Avg. Salary $36,551

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.7

Growth rate -5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.27%

Asian 7.08%

Black or African American 3.51%

Hispanic or Latino 7.91%

Unknown 4.56%

White 76.68%

Gender

female 12.50%

male 87.50%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

6.7

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.3

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an assistant sports editor

Explore assistant sports editor education requirements

Most common assistant sports editor degrees

Bachelor's

88.6 %

Associate

4.6 %

Master's

3.7 %

Start to develop specific assistant sports editor skills

Skills	Percentages
Sports Coverage	11.24%
Adobe Photoshop	7.96%
Adobe Indesign	7.76%
Feature Stories	7.20%
Editorial Style	4.47%

Complete relevant assistant sports editor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New assistant sports editors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an assistant sports editor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real assistant sports editor resumes.

Research assistant sports editor duties and responsibilities

Manage editorial process: assigning stories to line-editing to HTML publishing/page placement.
Plan and produce NFL, NBA, NHL and baseball preview sections.
Lead editor of numerous special sections, including Olympic, NFL, college and high school.
Provide daily game, column and/or feature coverage of nine MIAA high schools and one NCAA program.

Prepare your assistant sports editor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your assistant sports editor resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an assistant sports editor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

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