I want to incorperate high adventure sports into a career?

Question

im thinking about writing for a magazine like national geographic, any other ideas? does anyone know what the salary for that would be?

Answer 1

Most writers reporting on high-adventure sports are free-lance journalists who are paid by assignment. This is even true for major magazines like the Geographic. Only very few would be salaried "staff" writers. As in any type of published writing, the payment depends on the stature and circulation of the magazine and the skill and reputation of the writer so you could be looking at anywhere from zero payment to $1,000's of dollars per article.

In a way, it is like being and actor or a musician. Only the very best writers can support themselves well by ONLY writing about sports -- most also have another type of related work as backup such as photography or guiding. I have known two wilderness sports free-lance writers who worked as manufacturer's sales reps for outdoor gear. If you look in most magazines like National Geographic and Outside, they will have little blurbs in the front of the magazine with information about the writers of articles in the issue -- reading those could help give you some ideas as to how they got to the level where such publications would hire them to write pieces.

It's important to not only be an excellent writer but to have an in-depth knowledge about the sports you plan to cover, to be willing to travel a lot at a moment's notice under often rough conditions and to be able to meet deadlines under pressure.

If this is something you really feel you could be good at it you should plan to take college courses in writing and journalism to hone your skills. To build a portfolio of published work, I would also recommend joining one or more local clubs for the sports that interest you (surfing, skiing, climbing, etc.) and then submitting articles about their events to their newsletters. You won't get paid to start off with but they are usually happy to have free articles and it will give you a chance to get practice and to appear in print. This will help you get jobs eventually. Also, going to events like the Mountain Film Festivals in Telluride, Colorado (every Memorial Day weekend) and in Banff, Alberta (early November) will give you a chance to meet some of the top people who write about extreme adventure sports.

It would be a challenging career if you've got the talent and drive for it. Good luck!