The Job

• Don't be fooled by the flashy title---a sports information director is really just a management-level public relations specialist. And, like all public relations managers, job duties include designing promotional flyers and brochures, coordinating in-house and outside media coverage, and sending out information such as scores, schedules and other news via press releases and house publications (print or online). As with many public relations jobs, the workload is pretty heavy and deadlines are ever looming. Multitasking and goal oriented planning are the keys to being successful at this difficult yet rewarding career.
  
  

The Salary

• According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics the average wage for public relations managers working at a university is $89,800 per year. The average salary for communications managers in all industries is reported to be $101,220 per year.
  
  

Salary by State

• Geography plays an important role in how much a public relations manager will get paid. Looking at the average salary per state, we can see the top five highest paying states for public relations managers starts in the District of Columbia, where the average salary is $142,390 per year. New York follows at $126,220; New Jersey is next at $122,960; and Delaware reports an average salary of $120,140 per year.
  
  

Employment by Industry

• Employment opportunities differ by industry, yet aspiring sports information directors can take heart in the fact that higher education is the third-highest employing industry of public relations managers. Collectively, colleges and universities in the U.S. boast about 4,370 public-relations employees nationwide.
  
  

Job Outlook

• The BLS esimates that job growth for public relations managers in general will grow by 12 percent between 2006 and 2016. The growth is due to the increasingly competitive marketing strategies involving mass media tools such as the Internet, television and radio. For sports-information directors, the job market is likely to remain stable, as most colleges and universities already have such positions and will only fill them if somebody retires, leaves for another job, or is fired.