Sports Reporters gather relevant information and report on sports news in an engaging and informative manner through various media outlets. They usually report on news regarding sports teams, sports events, athletes, coaches, and fans.
A sports reporter may work for television or radio stations, online publications, newspapers, or even networks. The job of a sports reporter involves a lot of traveling because they need to go to the field to cover sports events or to interview athletes.
A sports reporter may choose to specialize in the coverage of a particular sport (e.g., football) or to cover all sports. Nonetheless, their reporting content must be factual and accurate.
Some other duties of a sports reporter include researching and fact-checking sports news, interviewing sports personalities, taking photographs and shooting videos, and writing detailed articles for publication.
Since a sports reporter performs most of his or her work in the field, they don't usually have regular working hours. They must be on call all the time because they work with their interviewees' schedules.
Sports Reporter Overview
Sports Reporter Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a sports reporter. For example, did you know that they make an average of $19.6 an hour? That's $40,778 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -10% and produce -5,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Sports Reporter Do
There are certain skills that many sports reporters have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, stamina and computer skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a sports reporter, we found that a lot of resumes listed 15.3% of sports reporters included news stories, while 7.1% of resumes included twitter, and 6.8% of resumes included on-air. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the sports reporter job title. But what industry to start with? Most sports reporters actually find jobs in the media and education industries.
How To Become a Sports Reporter
If you're interested in becoming a sports reporter, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 81.8% of sports reporters have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 8.5% of sports reporters have master's degrees. Even though most sports reporters have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a sports reporter. When we researched the most common majors for a sports reporter, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on sports reporter resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a sports reporter. In fact, many sports reporter jobs require experience in a role such as internship. Meanwhile, many sports reporters also have previous career experience in roles such as reporter or sports editor.
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Sports Reporter Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a sports reporter can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as reporter, progress to a title such as account executive and then eventually end up with the title director of communications and marketing.
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Average Salary for a Sports Reporter
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Sportsengine Sports Reporter Sports Reporter | Sportsengine Sportsengine | 07/12/2019 07/12/2019 | $20,87007/12/2019 $20,870 |
Gannett Co. Inc. Sports Reporter Sports Reporter | Gannett Co. Inc. Gannett Co. Inc. | 05/23/2019 05/23/2019 | $20,87005/23/2019 $20,870 |
Sing Tao Newspapers Los Angeles Ltd. Sports Reporter Sports Reporter | Sing Tao Newspapers Los Angeles Ltd. Sing Tao Newspapers Los Angeles Ltd. | 02/21/2017 02/21/2017 | $29,84802/21/2017 $29,848 |
Chosun Daily News, LLC Sports Reporter Sports Reporter | Chosun Daily News, LLC Chosun Daily News, LLC | 05/18/2016 05/18/2016 | $48,56805/18/2016 $48,568 |
The Joong-Ang Daily News, Inc. Sports Reporter Sports Reporter | The Joong-Ang Daily News, Inc. The Joong-Ang Daily News, Inc. | 03/04/2015 03/04/2015 | $36,23403/04/2015 $36,234 |
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Sports Reporter Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Sports Reporter. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Sports Reporter Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Sports Reporter resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Sports Reporters
1. California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo, CA • Public
2. University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI • Public
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA • Private
4. North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC • Public
5. University of Georgia
Athens, GA • Public
6. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL • Public
7. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
8. Ohio State University
Columbus, OH • Public
9. Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA • Public
10. Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX • Public
Top Skills For a Sports Reporter
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 15.3% of sports reporters listed news stories on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and stamina are important as well.
- News Stories, 15.3%
- Twitter, 7.1%
- On-Air, 6.8%
- Game Coverage, 6.6%
- Facebook, 6.5%
- Other Skills, 57.7% See All Sports Reporter Skills
How Do Sports Reporter Rate Their Jobs?
Top Sports Reporter Employers
Sports Reporter Videos
