Reporting: Would you pay to play?

I’m now officially done with my summer internship work at the Erie Times-News.

Of course, I technically received credit upon filling out the necessary paperwork at the end of August, but there were a few loose ends left to tie up.

In mid-July, I began researching, sourcing and interviewing subjects for a story that would run in the Times’ Varsity section during the high school sports season. It ended up not running until a few weeks ago on Jan. 6, but the finished product was well worth the wait.

Here’s the cover as it appeared that day. The illustration was done by the Times’ awesome graphic artist, Chris Sigmund, who helped me extensively during my first internship on the news desk in summer 2008. Chris is simply a great guy to work with. Together with Sports Editor Jeff Kirik, the pair conceptualized and drew up this graphic. It’s certainly an eye-catching rendering, and undoubtedly helped draw many readers inside to my story. Many thanks to both Jeff and Chris.

As always, I also owe gratitude to Times Sports Editor Matt Martin, who pitched the story and helped me along in sourcing and narrowing its focus during my last few summer weeks in the newsroom. One of the reasons for the additional delay in the story’s publication was that the PSERS crisis that you will read about below really developed during the autumn months. Matt and Jeff filled me in on the situation, allowed me to finish the story that I started instead of handing it off to another staffer, then provided encouragement to keep after the Erie School District for answers.

Click here or on the thumbnail below to read the piece in its entirety as a PDF.

All content is copywritten by, and appears with permission from, the Erie Times-News.