Earlier this week, Jay Moglia suggested that we find a way to report on local races from the outside, as well as from the inside:
I’m suggesting to www.gamjams.net that all of us racers make a small donation of a dollar or two and we hire an actual reporter to tell us what happened. Otherwise it is just one person’s blog-eye view of the race. I would love to know exactly who was doing what. I know where the charges were and when the moves went and vaguely how big they were but don’t know who specifically was animating the action at any given time.
Jay and I exchanged some emails about it, and I think it's a fabulous idea. No small part of what GamJams tries to do is to let some of us rank amateurs know what it feels like to be our idols. If there can be magazines and websites devoted to what Stijn and Oscar are up to, why can't there be something that lauds our own efforts, perhaps meager in comparison to racers-by-vocation, but personally herculean to us.
Jay's idea that the racers shoulder the cost is perfectly equitable. But that's not really how GamJams rolls. My goal is to create enough media around local racing (online, offline, before, during, after) so that the expense of racing is borne far less by the racers, and more by the sponsors. I dream of a season where entry fees are $0, weekend in and weekend out. So finding a way to charge racers more en route to this finish line, however equitable, isn't aligned with GamJams vision.
So I'm looking for reporters.
If you know the local racers and will be at a local event, and want to cover one or more of the events from start to finish - naming names, lauding powerful moves, even snapping some pictures - I want to run your articles here.
Salary is negotiable, but please negotiate mercifully. I'm hoping some of you will want to do this to make GamJams newer and improveder, and boost your own personal profile in the process. But even if you'll only do it for cold hard cash, let's talk anyway.
Reporter applications now being accepted. Send a sample of your writing as well please, and what event(s) in the next few weeks you'd like to cover.
I certainly wouldn't want to be a reporter working for a boss who uses the word "improveder" in his own writing.
Actually, I make up words all the time. I just never remember them long enough to use them a second time. Hmph.
Posted by: yeagermeister | April 14, 2008 at 08:56 AM
Good point. I guess I also need a good copy editor. That just might make this the most besterest cycling site around.
Posted by: Mike May | April 14, 2008 at 09:03 AM
I LIKE TO USE BETTEREST......
Posted by: daniel gibson | April 14, 2008 at 11:17 AM