US Football People

[Er Liquidatore]

Do any of you guys know of any football mags out there that take (and actually pay for) features and what have you from the crazy, whacky game of two halves we call football?

I have an idea or two but I'm either too chit to pitch my features ideas properly or no cunt wants to bother reading anything I've written. It's demoralising and driving me fucking potty, so I'm putting out a call to Statesiders to help me, for the love of God.

[JtS]

US Football People

You're taking pushing the Chelsea brand to the US a step too far this time.

[ursus arctos]

US Football People

The world has changed a lot in the interim, but the near complete absence of such things in the US media landscape has quite a bit to do with me having become a lawyer.

You can try Soccer America,and someone like imp may have better ideas, but from what I've seen recently, by far the most interesting football writing coming out of the US has been on blogs (not unlike yours).

[Incandenza]

US Football People

The only American soccer magazine that I know of is Soccer America, and this doesn't really sound like something they'd be interested in. It's a pretty dry magazine. There was another, 90:00, but I haven't seen that in a long time.

All of the best soccer writing from Americans is online. It's too much of a niche market to survive in print form in the US. There's very little quality sportswriting in general in print in the US. The New York Times has a quarterly sports magazine supplement that has consistently top-drawer sportswriting, and that's about it.

From what it sounds like, you might want to try ESPN: The Magazine. They sometimes have off-beat articles, and they're not shy to run articles on soccer. I'm not sure if they run stuff from anyone outside of the Worldwide Leader Death Star, however, and not sure if you would want to associate yourself with ESPN to begin with.

It sounds like a perfect match for Deadspin.com, but I don't know if they pay people.

edit: or, what ursus said more quickly than I did.

[Ball Comrade]

US Football People

PM for liquidator

[Er Liquidatore]

US Football People

Ok guys, thanks for your help. I think I might go and cry in the corner before biting the bullet and getting a bar job.

edit

Replied.

[Ball Comrade]

US Football People

And back at 'ya'.

[pawlu]

US Football People

And, in the spirit of this post, PM to liquidator.

[Er Liquidatore]

US Football People

Replied.

[imp]

US Football People

I work as a freelancer for Soccer America on its daily newsletters, but most of its print version is generated in-house (its two main writers, Mike Woitalla and Ridge Mahoney, are excellent writers and know the US game inside out). I've contributed a couple of times to the print version, but the whole pitching/payment process took a while.

I wrote twice for 90 Minutes, which believes it is a radically different publication. But in fact its pay is shite (and its content not much better) and not worth your time - $100 per piece, and when I asked for more, that was the end of our beautiful relationship. Last year I bumped into the former news editor - she was giving out press passes at the LA Galaxy. It gives you an idea of the market for football journalism in the US when I say the latter job was probably far more lucrative.

Finally, there's Major League Soccer magazine, the semi-official glossy monthly. Pay's better, but anything you write has to be MLS-related and, of course, nothing critical.

Websites that pay, but reportedly not much - goal.com, ussoccerplayers.com (my former employer), mlsnet.com.

I know of a couple of people who have given up their jobs to try and make it as freelance football hacks here, but it mostly can't be done. If I didn't have a working wife, I'd have to get a 'proper' job too.