Dan Karpiel: Berthoud Surveyor writer
Dan Karpiel is a sports journalist currently working at Berthoud Surveyor. Growing up in Berthoud, Colorado, he graduated from Colorado State University from 2001-2006 and graduated with a double-major in economics and political science and a degree in Bachelor of Arts.
Living the life of a sports journalist was not Karpiel’s first choice. However, once he saw the opportunity to reach out, he took it.
“I always loved sports and thought I would make a pretty good sports writer or sports talk radio host,” said Karpiel. “So I took a chance. I sent some feelers out to a number of local newspapers and a few blogs and I eventually got hired by an online newspaper called the Berthoud Recorder Online who was in need of someone to cover high school sports.”
“Being a small town, Berthoud has only one high school [Berthoud High School],” said Karpiel. “It was the high school that I went to growing up, so I was comfortable. It made it easier as I knew a lot of the teachers and coaches at the school.”
However, because he has emotional connection to the place and stories he writes, it makes it more difficult to be unbiased.
“Most sports journalists do develop an affinity for the team(s) they’re covering,” said Karpiel. “I cover both Berthoud High School and Colorado State teams, both are schools that I attended and graduated from, so I have an emotional attachment to them. Same goes for the Broncos and Rockies who I have covered. However, you must check your emotions at the door and be a honest journalist. My rule is that I will never be unfair but I will never be dishonest. As a straight news reporter covering the high school and college sports beats, you cannot let your emotion influence your work.”
Once Karpiel worked at Berthoud Recorder Online for two years and gained experience, he took on a journalist job at the Berthoud Surveyor from 2012 where he works now.
Being a journalist means Dan Karpiel has a sporadic schedule.
“As a journalist, your schedule is dependent entirely on your beat’s schedule,” said Karpiel. “Journalism is not a ‘9 to 5’ job where you show up at the office in the morning, work, eat lunch, and head home to your family for dinner in the evening. The majority of your work is done away from the event, be that at your publications’ office or at your home office. Rarely a day goes by that I’m not exchanging phone calls/texts/emails with coaches, players, athletic directors and colleagues. It’s a career that requires flexibility – as I said there’s times I’m up very late finishing a story and times when I’m up early to get to an event.”
At one point, he worked for Football Nation, but left because of its lack of true journalism. However, it did teach him what type of journalist he wanted to become.
“I decided that that website was not real journalism. It was opinion, fluff and sensationalism (top 5 this, 10 worst that, etc),” said Karpiel. “So what Football Nation did for my career was teach me what kind of journalism I wanted to practice; real journalism focused on reporting, not hyperbole.”
Being a journalist himself, Karpiel has learned lessons as a journalist and has recommendations for those who aspire to be one.
“The recommendations I would have for any aspiring journalist would be to search your feelings and decide if it’s the right field for you,” said Karpiel. “If you like researching and digging for information, if you’re okay working a non-traditional schedule and you enjoy writing, go for it. Read as much of other journalists’ work as you can and work to develop your own voice.”
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