Meet the Sports Writer Who Manages His Articles for 27 Different Publications All in One Place
It’s safe to say that Chris Pike is a truly experienced sports writer. His article count is at 1,731 and he has published at more than two dozen different outlets to date. How does he know this so precisely? Well, Chris found a way to positively stay on top of all the content he has created over the course of his career.
Hi Chris, thanks for agreeing to share your experience with Authory so far. Please tell us a little bit about your background as a journalist.
Well, the idea of following this career path first popped in my head when I was with a friend at the gym in our last year of school. I had no idea what I should apply to study at university but he soon pointed out that I know a lot about sport, so why don’t I try writing about it.
Name: Chris PikeAuthory page: authory.com/ChrisPikeNumber of articles: 1,731Number of publications: 27
From there I started a communications course at uni, but really my career started at the same time when I got real life experience. It started out on a fledgling football newspaper, within six months I was the editor of that and when it folded 18 months later, I began working on a freelance basis with the Koori Mail, Sunday Times and Inside Football. Each of those roles lasted almost 15 years each and the role with the Koori Mail continues to this day.
“Writing is my great strength and passion.”
Along the way I started picking up more and more work with news agencies, sporting websites and it ended up being possible to make a full-time living out of what I was doing. While those early years I focused on working with the media organisations, gradually starting working with sporting clubs and organisations, and now pretty much all of my work is on providing content for them, whether it’s basketball both nationally and on a state level, with local football clubs, Perth Heat baseball club, the state’s water polo association.
Writing is my great strength and passion, but I’ve even branched out to hosting and producing some podcasts over the past 18 months while still doing the occasional actual reporting work for news/media organisations.
You have been using Authory for a few months now. What did you look for initially?
The worst part of working for as many different places as I do and the fact that most of my work is published online is that it’s so hard to keep track of, and quickly disappears after it’s been published and floats off the homepage of whatever website it is published to.
What I have been desperately searching my whole career for is one place where I could post all my articles to and keep them forever to easily go back and find whatever I need, and to also show anyone interested my work portfolio.
I had never found anything like it and it was a constant frustration to go to search back through old articles and social media posts, but that’s when I discovered Authory.
And how has Authory worked for you? Have your expectations been fulfilled?
Authory has provided me with exactly what I’ve been hoping existed for the last 15 years. Being able to have all my articles all in the one place dating back more than a decade, and not only that, but to be able to sort between different sports and media outlets makes it an invaluable resource.
“Authory has provided me with exactly what I’ve been hoping existed for the last 15 years.”
Another frustration is people I work for at times not publishing an article or changing it, or deleting it off their server. But the fact that Authory allows me to publish new articles too means I now basically have my own website to host any articles to at any time, and then send them out onto the world through social media.
Authory has been an incredible resource not only for myself to maintain a complete history of my work, but when looking at new places to work for, all I need to do is send them the link to my Authory page and they can learn everything they need to know about my work capabilities.
Anybody taking a look at your Authory page can easily see that you’ve written for an impressive number of different outlets. What’s your experience with keeping track of all your work been like?
It has been incredible to be able to use Authory to keep track of my work. Anywhere you have a byline, the articles get automatically uploaded which is remarkable.
But for writers like me that provide content for organisations or clubs, there’s not always a place for a byline if it’s your job to provide all the content. But it’s just so easy to upload all your articles onto Authory yourself.
Being able to have Authory has provided me with the ability to catalogue and keep track of all my work from today throughout my long career in a way I previously thought I could only manually do through collecting screenshots. And I quickly learned I just didn’t have time to be able to do that.
What would you say to your journalist colleagues about Authory?
To be honest I don’t think anybody who gets work published online should not have an Authory account. There is no other resource available to allow you to keep track of your work, to sort and maintain your work, and even to publish your work. I just couldn’t live without it now and I think anyone else like me would feel the same quickly after using it.
“I couldn’t live without Authory now and I think anyone else like me would feel the same quickly after using it.”
Chris Pike, authory.com/ChrisPike
Thanks, Chris!
Chris and thousands of other writers and journalist are using Authory to take control of their content and their audience. Join Chris with a free 14 day trial at authory.com.
