Mar

18

Job Opening: Arizona Diamondbacks Player & Media Relations Internship

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Still looking for a summer internship, ideally in Arizona? Well, this internship posting may be the perfect fit for you. The Arizona Diamondbacks need to hire a Player & Media Relations intern for the 2010 season. If you are interested and meet the qualifications, please visit this website to apply. Good luck!

Primary Responsibilities:

1. Compile daily clips (print and TV).
2. Assemble daily stat pack.
3. Coverage of press box.
4. Copy daily materials for media.
5. Assist with post-game notes.
6. General office responsibilities.

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Mar

17

Job Opening: Chicago Fire Content Manager/Producer

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Chicago Fire (MLS) is looking to hire a Content Manager/Producer to report to its VP of Communications & Community Affairs. If you fulfill the qualifications below and would like to apply for the job, please follow this link to do so. As with past job postings, I cannot help you get the job. I merely posted this job opening to make SPRB readers aware of the opportunity. Good luck!

Role/Expectations:
Responsible for all multi-media content coordination, development, production, and publishing for the Chicago Fire Soccer Club. This includes team’s website and production of video, photos, audio & other content for website, broadcast (TV and radio) and game day presentation (video board and LED screens). Oversee accuracy and coordinate dissemination of information about all team data into publishing systems such as, video, broadcast TV schedule information, news links, promo announcements, ticket information, social networking content, team rosters & bios and other website elements (rotating pages, splash pages, news pages, etc.). Oversees day to day operations of team website and coordinating new media technologies. Work cooperatively with all internal and external third parties.

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Mar

15

Job Opening: UFC New Media and Public Relations Internship

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UFC is looking for some interns for this upcoming fall, including one for New Media and another to help with its PR efforts. Check out the details below and if you’re qualified and interested, please visit this link for the New Media internship and this link for the PR internship. Good luck!

New Media

Just like how our fighters prepare with their training partners to be their very best, here at the Ultimate Fighting Championship we encourage that type of teamwork. A UFC employee, like a mixed martial artist, is well-rounded and willing to put in the time necessary to be world-class. With an office full of champion workers, the UFC has fought relentlessly to break into the sports world with undeniable success – But the fight isn’t over yet. So if you would like to watch the sport you love grow right in front of your own eyes because of your hard work, then come join a great team and become part of a sports revolution.

Purpose is to expose college students interested in future careers in Business and/or Marketing to practical work experience.

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Mar

4

Interview with Matt Barnhart, Detroit Lions Director of Media Relations (Part 4)

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Today is the last part of an informational interview that I had by phone with Matt Barnhart, who is the Detroit Lions Director of Media Relations. We spent nearly 45 minutes talking about public relations and the Lions so I decided to break it into multiple posts this week. In today’s post, Matt provides some career tips and suggestions for those wanting to work in the sports PR industry. If you haven’t read them already, be sure to check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of the informational interview.

1) What suggestions would you give someone who is hoping to find a job in the sports PR industry?

I’ll first start out with the academic part of it. You don’t necessarily have to have a specific degree to succeed or find a job, but you have to develop certain skills and they’re basically your main communications skills. One is writing and the other part is the verbal skills—the interpersonal skills that you have and the ability to build relationships and getting to know and work with people. Those two aspects are vital. I would think from a more specific standpoint, anybody working in a sport management and/or marketing program would have good opportunities, as well as sports communication. I would also think if you are in a journalism school or in a public relations program, those build good foundations. Ultimately, what it comes down to in competing for an internship in the NFL, you have to have some solid experience while you’re in college and I can’t stress that enough to students about getting experience early. Earlier than later!

It’s very difficult at times to all of a sudden graduate and want to enter this field because you think this is interesting and this is what you want to do but you don’t have any experience. It’s very difficult so what I try to emphasize with students, especially in their junior year or sophomore year, is that wherever you are at whether it’s at college during the school year or whether you go home, there is some way that you can connect to the sports world.

If you have a minor league baseball team in your area, try working for them during the summer and doing whatever you can to just get experience whether it’s from a sports management standpoint or media relations standpoint. Get your foot in the door and start working around a sports organization. Writing for a sports section or a sports department is really good because some of the writing is similar. Our interns and entry-level assistants have to deal with writing, and if they are at least around athletes and writing about athletes they get a good understanding of sports writing and the sports industry. That’s another really good, solid experience to have. And that writing follows you all the way during your career.

Not only do you need to have a pretty decent education structure, but you have to have experience and those two things work hand in hand because once you have that experience, you start networking and start building contacts who will help you down the road. Those are the two things to get people started, but the another thing that I’d like to add is to understand that every day, no matter if you’re an intern or in my position or even a student trying to find an internship, you have to prove your value and you have to make sure that you demonstrate the skills to succeed. It is about your ability to add value to the organization that you are either working for or want to work for that’s really important.

2) What type of character traits do you look for in potential hires whether it’s for an internship or a full-time position?

I want to make sure that the person has a base understanding and knowledge of sports, especially with the sport of football. If a person comes in and has writing experience but they don’t know certain things about the game, such as struggling to figure out what certain positions are, it’s very difficult for us to feel comfortable with them. Once they join us, things move fast and get going, and we don’t have a lot of time to train and teach people like the basic fundamentals of the game. That’s one, having a base knowledge of sports and football.

Second is that work ethic can’t be stressed enough. We need to make sure that they’re going to put the time in and put the effort in to help our department. As you know, this is not a 9-5 job and it’s not a job that you’re going to work a few hours a week and master. You’ve got to put the time in it. When training camp starts, we’re working seven days a week basically until we have a bye week so you have to be committed and you have to show commitment from day one.

Another trait that you need to have is the ability to be a self-starter in terms of some projects because we can’t, especially the way I manage our internship program and our department, micro-manage people. I don’t like to micromanage my employees. I don’t like to micromanage my interns so you better be able to handle projects and you must be able to say, ‘Okay, this project is done. What else can I work on? What else can I get started?’ And if you don’t have direction at that specific time than you may even want to propose something. ‘Hey this is what I’m thinking of doing.’ Because one, if you can propose a project that’s going to add value or help the department, that’s great but it’s also going to show that you are very progressive and that you are basically a go-getter in terms of what you’re doing. That’s really important.

I tell our interns when they start with us that I want to give you as much responsibility and opportunities that you can get. I don’t have problems giving you projects that are normally held for a full-time assistant because that’s ultimately going to benefit you in the long run to be able to do some of those and have that on your resume and portfolio. I’m not going to give those to you unless: one, you’ve proven the ability to do it and, two, if you’ve earned that opportunity. There might be some simple responsibilities that you have as an intern like newspaper clippings and so forth that if you don’t master those I’m not going to give you more responsibilities. It’s not right and it’s not fair for everyone involved so those are basically some character traits that I think are very important.

Mar

3

Interview with Matt Barnhart, Detroit Lions Director of Media Relations (Part 3)

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Today is Part 3 of an informational interview that I had by phone with Matt Barnhart, who is the Detroit Lions Director of Media Relations. We spent nearly 45 minutes talking about public relations and the Lions so I decided to break it into multiple posts this week. In today’s post, Matt addresses the Lions’ 0-16 season in 2008 and dealing with blogs and rumor websites. Tomorrow’s post, which will be the last in this four-part series, will feature Q&A with Matt about career tips for the sports PR industry. If you haven’t read them already, be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 of the informational interview.

1) In 2008, you guys obviously had a tough season going 0-16. As a PR department, how do you deal with something like that and what were some of the obstacles that you had to overcome during that season?

Well how we dealt with it was that we didn’t focus on 0-16. Just like the team, we were focusing week-by-week. We weren’t looking at how this is going to affect us long-term or what’s going to happen three weeks down the road. Our focus was to do what we can as a PR department to help this organization prepare and get ready for the next game. So you really narrowed your focus and as much as possible and kept focus on the upcoming game. Much like the team preparing each game, you were doing the same thing and working in concert with the same message and the same mission that they were doing. Obviously things didn’t turn out anywhere where we expected and it was a disappointment, but you’ve got to have that mindset especially if the team is moving in that direction. You need to make sure that you stay on that same message.

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Mar

2

Interview with Matt Barnhart, Detroit Lions Director of Media Relations (Part 2)

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Today is Part 2 of an informational interview that I had by phone with Matt Barnhart, who is the Detroit Lions Director of Media Relations. We spent nearly 45 minutes talking about public relations and the Lions so I decided to break it into multiple posts this week. In today’s post, Matt addresses the NFL Draft. Tomorrow’s post will feature Q&A with Matt regarding the Lions’ 0-16 season in 2008 and how he deals with blogs and rumor websites. If you haven’t read them already, be sure to check out Part 1 of the informational interview.

1) The Lions had the top pick in 2009 and obviously the draft generates so much media attention, especially of late. What types of things did you and your staff do in the weeks leading up to the draft and then actually on draft day when it comes to that overall first pick?

As the off-season kind of developed, we started to realize that there’s nothing we can do about the past and it helped us that we had a new face in terms of our head coach, Jim Schwartz, who does a tremendous job with the media. The way he handles the media positively impacts the development of this team. We quickly realized that no matter where we go, whether it’s the combine or owner’s meetings, we’re going to receive a lot of attention and there’s going to be a lot of people requesting for his time and our time because they want to know what’s going on and they want to know who we’re picking. The draft has become such a huge event – it’s one of the top events in all of sports and probably the top non-game event on the sports calendar each year. With that number one pick, all focus for the months leading up was focused on us because with the number one pick we held the key to the rest of the draft.

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Mar

1

Interview with Matt Barnhart, Detroit Lions Director of Media Relations (Part 1)

Filed Under Career, Interviews | 5 Comments

I had the honor of conducting an informational interview by phone with Matt Barnhart, who is the Detroit Lions Director of Media Relations. We spent nearly 45 minutes talking about public relations and the Lions so I decided to break it into multiple posts over the next few days as Matt provided me with an incredible amount of helpful information and tips in his responses and I want to make sure none of his answers get lost in the shuffle. In today’s post, Matt addresses his career with how he got his start and what his current position entails. Tomorrow’s post will feature Q&A with Matt regarding the NFL Draft.

1) You’ve been working with the Lions since 1997 and started off as an intern before making your way to your current title as Director of Media Relations. How did you go from being an intern with the team to where you are today?

I learned very early on that one of the best pieces of advice to me, given to me, is that you always want to try to work at the level above you. That means if you’re an intern, your level of work should be as an entry-level assistant. When you’re an assistant, you should try to be working your way up and working as an assistant director. Or if you’re an assistant director you should work at the level of the director. What you want to do is have people notice what you’re doing, notice your responsibilities and see how you grow. When the opportunity comes, you want to make sure that you’re the first person they think can fill that role. You want to be the first and best option.

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Feb

19

HAPPO — Hire Me!

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Some of you may have heard of the HAPPO movement. HAPPO stands for Help a PR Pro Out and today from 11-3 p.m. EST, PR professionals around the country are helping others find positions in PR.

As someone who is still searching for a job in the sports PR field (either with a team, sport publication, or an agency with sport clients), I wanted to create a post to go live during the HAPPO action. If you know of any relevant entry-level positions, please let me know via e-mail at christy[dot]hammond19[@]gmail[dot]com or by Twitter.

As you can see in my bio, I have 3.5 years of experience working for hockey teams (minor league, college, and the NHL), including 2.5 years with the Detroit Red Wings, in addition to a summer internship with Burson-Marsteller at their Chicago office. As my online portfolio and LinkedIn profile demonstrate, I have acquired experience in event management, new media (writing articles for the web and gameday programs, blogging weekly), media relations (updating media guides, setting up interviews, updating game notes and player bios, creating media lists and editorial calendars), and community relations (setting up meet and greets, maintaining charitable donations request database, assisting with 50/50 raffles).

If you have any questions about my experiences/qualifications or can point me to a relevant job opening, please reach me at christy[dot]hammond19[@]gmail[dot]com. Thanks in advance!

Jan

30

Job Opening: USA Shooting Media and Public Relations Manager

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USA Shooting is looking to hire a media and public relations manager and will accept applications through Feb. 5, 2010. If interested, please visit this website to check out the qualifications and position responsibilities before applying. Good luck!

USA Shooting is the National Governing Body for Olympic shooting, and is based on the Olympic Training Complex in Colorado Springs, CO.  For more information on USA Shooting, go to http://www.usashooting.org.

USA Shooting will accept applications for the Media and Public Relations manager until Friday, February 5th. Applications should include a cover letter and resume, as well as writing samples or website link to recent work in the Media/PR field.

Applicants must possess at least a Bachelor of Arts degree in a relevant field, with strong skills in writing and editing, working in a web-based environment, video and print media production, as well as photo and graphics editing. Magazine layout and publication skills desired. Coordinating with media outlets and athletes to publish interviews and features is a major element of this position. In addition, the Media and PR manager will work closely with the USA Shooting Marketing department to increase brand recognition and exposure. A sports background and experience in the firearms industry is desired.

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Nov

15

Job Opening: Tampa Bay Lightning Foundation Coordinator

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Earlier this week, we linked to a Tampa Bay Lighting posting for a Community Relations Manager. They are also searching for a Foundation Coordinator. If you are interested and would like to apply, please head to this website. Good luck!

JOB SUMMARY: The Lightning Foundation Coordinator is responsible for the assisting and advancing the mission of the Lightning Foundation while conducting excellent community relations for Tampa Bay Lightning and St. Pete Times Forum. This position will report to the Executive Director of the Lightning Foundation and work with Community Relations, Corporate Communications and Public Relations.

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