Description of the video:
[Video Description: This 6-minute video alternates between 4 different scenes: 1) Sam Beishuizen speaking directly to the camera in the hallway at Hebron High School, 2) Sam leaning on a balcony in a gym, writing in his notebook about the basketball game happening on the court, 3) Sam interviewing athletes, and 4) various clips from boys and girls basketball games, including the audience cheering, teams celebrating, teams posing for photos, and cheerleaders hyping up the crowd. When a game is featured on the screen, you can hear the sounds from the gym and the crowd cheering each time something exciting happens.]
SAM: I think high school sports still matter. I really genuinely do. And it's so sad to me that there are so many places where there's no media to tell the stories of these high school kids, but especially in small schools, some of these communities, like we're here tonight in Hebron for the Porter County Conference basketball tournament. These kids like this is a big deal to them. Playing in these games is a big deal. These kids, these families, these coaches, these parents. If I weren't here at Hebron High School right now covering the PCC girls and boys basketball tournaments, I don't think anybody would be. And that's not fair to these kids.
My name is Sam Beishuizen. I'm from Crown Point, Indiana. And I am by day a logistics professional at Vanguard National Trailer in Monan, Indiana, and by night I go to high schools across Northwest Indiana, writing about high school sports, high school basketball, football, everything, mostly for the Times of Northwest Indiana.
Sports reporting is getting so much smaller. It's getting so much smaller. I hate that I'm saying this, but to be only a freelancer in today's journalism landscape, I just don't think that it's possible. I really don't think that it's possible to do it and really have long-term success as far as you're making okay money. You're confident about your job next year, the year after, and 3 years from now. You're putting money away for retirement. You know what I mean? You're doing the right things. You have insurance, healthcare, everything. I don't think you can do that anymore. I know some folks who are still trying to do it, and they're miserable in the Chicagoland area. They're just they're miserable. So, I really think you need to have a traditional job, whether that's full-time or part-time. You need to have another piece of it that you can count on because my job with the Times changes every single year. There are some years when I could do three or four things a week. There are some years where I'm down to one thing a week, and then it flips the next year, for no noticeable reason other than that's the amount of money that the parent company, Lee Enterprises, has been able to put toward freelancers, right?
My stalwart part of my freelancing is with a traditional newspaper, the Times in Northwest Indiana. And so for that, for me on a traditional night, it's going to that game, tweeting about updates from that game, shooting video of key plays that you might use on the site, or whatever for context. Usually, taking pictures after the game of those athletes, because we don't always have a photographer on site. So if we need a headshot or something, that's on me.
It's changed so much in the last decade that it's hard to know where it's going. Everything is so feature-heavy now. You know, when I come to a game, I'm not necessarily... until you get to a sectional or like a tournament, who wins doesn't matter nearly as much as who's good or who's interesting. You know, is there a deaf girl at Hammond Central High School who is playing with a translator? Like, that's cool. People want to hear about that more than they want to hear that Hammond Central lost by 15 to, you know, to Morton High School, right?
So, I think the future's going toward more features, more humanized storytelling, more historical significance, right? This is the first time this school has done this in 30 years or 40 years. This is the only school in the country to do this, or this kid has this that's not, you know, untraditional about them, but they still have success. It's those features that I think high school journalism is moving more and more to, which, to me, isn't a bad thing. I think that's cool. Yeah. Tell me about who's really good at the end of the year, but until then, tell me about who's doing something extraordinary.
I think analytics is huge. Those people who are learning the differences in sports and like how to look at numbers and tell stories, that matters right now. It's different. It's hot. I think that's the future of carving your niche in sports. It's features, or it's looking at data that other people are not looking at.
I'm worried for the future of freelance writing because I don't think there are a lot of people who are willing to do what I'm doing still. And what I'm finding is that not a lot of papers are replacing the freelancers who leave. My wife asks me all the time, like, why are you still doing this? I think that when I stop, there will not be another freelancer. When I stop, that's it. When I stop, I genuinely think that the stories that I'm telling just will stop being told. And it's so hard to come to grips with that when you care about the area. And I'm from here. I lived here. I grew up here. So, it matters to me. I just don't think that's going to matter as much to the next guy... if there is a next guy.
[Words Appear: A project of The Media School at Indiana University. Produced by Jack Bassett.]
[END OF TRANSCRIPT]
A day for Sam Beishuizen starts at his job as a logistics professional at Vanguard National Trailer in Monon, Indiana. But it often ends at basketball or football games at high schools across northwestern Indiana. Beishuizen is a freelance reporter who has covered the events for the Times of Northwest Indiana for nearly a decade.
Beishuizen never pictured himself living this double life. He idolized sportswriters as a teen and took every opportunity he could to pursue a career in journalism. But when he realized the pay that local journalism jobs offered, he knew he had to pursue a career elsewhere.
Since then, Beishuizen has moonlighted as a sports journalist. He posts updates in real time on social media, shoots some video on his smartphone, and writes up a report for the newspaper within an hour of the final buzzer.
While the part-time nature of the gig wasn’t his first choice, he finds a lot of meaning in it all the same.
“I think high school sports still matter. I really, genuinely do. It’s so sad to me when there’s no media to tell the stories of these high school kids,” Beishuizen said. “Playing these games is a big deal to these kids, these coaches, these parents. If I wasn’t here … I don’t think anybody would be. And that’s not fair to these kids.”
Still, it’s a continual struggle. Paid freelancing opportunities vary with the economic fortunes of local news organizations. And freelancing alone isn’t enough to pay the bills. Meanwhile, freelance work can keep journalists in the industry, but it rarely provides pathways to upward mobility in journalism. Many freelancers report that rates are stagnant or shrinking as more and more journalists go independent in the wake of layoffs or news organization closures.
Ultimately, freelancing can have the feeling of a hobby rather than a vocation, as one journalist told the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
“I would like it not to be, because it is not,” the journalist said. “It is a job and a profession. It sounds very harsh. But for many journalists, it is becoming a hobby, something we do just for love.”
At the same time, there are indications that for local journalism in particular, sports coverage is still a priority.
One in five editorial positions at Paxton Media 27 newspapers in Indiana are dedicated to sports reporting or editing positions. Sports is also the only category with dedicated coverage areas among the editor roles, and the only dedicated reporting position outside of one newspaper, the Elkhart Truth. The Truth has the largest staff of the Paxton papers, with five editorial employees and two dedicated to local sports coverage. Similarly, at The Pilot News Group, owners of four newspapers in north-central Indiana, local sports coverage often makes up the bulk of original news content the company produces.
In a landscape of editorial employees doing it all for a small publication as reporting generalists covering everything from crime to government to arts, sports often remains the last uniquely dedicated beat at local news organizations.
Beishuizen’s primary journalism employer, the Times of Northwest Indiana, is no exception. Only three editorial employees are listed on the newspaper’s staff page: the editor in chief, the managing editor, and a sports editor.
Still, given the trends of declining investment in original local journalism, Beuishuizen wonders what will come next.
“My wife asks me, why are you still doing this? I think that when I stop, there will not be another freelancer. When I stop, that’s it,” he said. “When I stop, I genuinely think that the stories that I’m telling will stop being told. It’s so hard to come to grips with that when you care about the area. And I’m from here. I lived here, I grew up here. So it matters to me. I just don’t think it’s going to matter as much to the next guy – if there is a next guy.”
References
Norbäck, M. (2022). Maintaining a Freelance Career: How Journalists Generate and Evaluate Freelance Work. Journalism Studies, 23(10), 1141–1159. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2022.2073257
