This paper presents a critical analysis of a sports media internship at Gold & Black Illustrated, a print and digital magazine serving a major university's athletic community. The author examines several interconnected goals: understanding how digital media has transformed sports publishing, managing subscriber databases, selling advertising to targeted demographics, and developing professional communication skills. The paper also reflects on broader themes in college sports, including the tension between the commercialization of NCAA athletics and the preservation of amateur spirit. Together, these goals frame the internship as a practical bridge between academic business coursework and a future career in sports management.
For my internship experience, I chose to work at Gold & Black Illustrated, a print magazine that covers university sports. The magazine has 2,000 paid subscribers, and members of the John Purdue Club — the university's athletic fundraising society — all receive the magazine as one of the perks of their membership. The magazine has both a print and a virtual component. The print version is designed to be a glossy keepsake, while the electronic component is published up to 30 times per year to provide ongoing information about university sports. It is delivered on Wednesdays during football season and on Mondays during basketball season.
The digital edition offers an interactive experience with both video and audio components and is well-suited in size and design for iPad and tablet reading. Its content is current, but the articles are in-depth and provide additional context well beyond the quick captions typical of sources like ESPN. Another component of the publication is GoldandBlack.com, which provides information about university sports and recruiting. It is a premium website with over 2,625 paid subscribers but also offers several free components, resulting in approximately 95,000 unique visitors per month.
The readership primarily consists of alumni who live close enough to visit campus for sports events on a frequent basis — 90% live within a day's drive of the university. They are affluent enough to provide financial support to athletic programs and are active participants in alumni-related sports events.
The multifaceted nature of this experience was one of its primary attractions. One of my goals in this internship was to gain a sense of how digital media has changed sports broadcasting. The internship allows me to experience both traditional print formats and the newer digital components of Gold & Black that are still taking shape. The different aspects of production will enable me to more fully understand the deadline-driven planning required for a publication to meet the needs of 12,000 subscribers from all over the world, while simultaneously providing content for the Internet. The glossy print aspects of the magazine must be well-researched and visually attractive, while the digital components must be timely in nature. Different approaches are required for different media, and a story that fits well in one context may not be well-suited for another.
Given the magazine's fundraising component, understanding how to use information in an organized fashion to provide service to customers is another key goal of my internship. All subscriber names must be organized and all users must be given passwords to fully access the virtual components of the subscriber experience. The magazine is in the process of reorganizing its entire online database to better track data about different subscribers and create a more user-friendly experience. Although I am not certain whether I will complete this ambitious endeavor by the end of my internship, I hope to make significant progress on this task.
Another goal is to become more spontaneous and responsive to the necessary changes inherent in publishing. I must be organized enough to schedule future events and coordinate different employee schedules, yet also remain responsive to late-breaking news. This flexibility is a vital component of succeeding in sports media. I must keep subscribers updated about any changes in the delivery process that might affect the publishing schedule, such as delays caused by waiting for additional photographs or information. The ability to communicate with subscribers online is a great asset in this regard. Constant communication is particularly essential because satisfied subscribers are also satisfied alumni donors. The magazine's purpose is both informative and marketing-related: it informs readers about university sports in an accurate and timely fashion and must do so in a manner designed to sustain readers' interest in — and financial contributions to — their alma mater.
"Details advertising spreadsheets and targeted sales outreach"
"Links business coursework to real-world publishing tasks"
"Reflects on commercialism versus amateur spirit in college sports"
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