Kaitlyn Schmidt - Associate Manager, Content Partnerships │ Influential Women

About Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn Schmidt is a sports media professional who graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in 2023, marking about three years in the industry. She currently serves as Associate Manager of Content Partnerships at Bleacher Report. In this role, her team serves as the liaison between Bleacher Report's content teams and various leagues, including Unrivaled, the MLB, the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, and the Big 12. She advocates for Bleacher Report's content in meetings with these leagues and for the leagues with internal content teams to drive access-based content initiatives. Schmidt began her professional journey as a post-grad intern with NCAA Digital, which is also under TNT Sports, focusing on editorial work and website programming. During college, she anchored for student sports broadcasts, helped edit 30 for 30-style documentaries for UNC championship teams, served as a senior writer for the Daily Tar Heel, and was heavily involved in the journalism school. She attributes her success to maintaining connections through follow-ups and work samples, developing a broad skill set early on, and staying informed as an industry expert by listening to sports media podcasts and understanding industry trends and competitors.

Ten minutes with Kaitlyn

01What do you attribute your success to?

I attribute my success to maintaining connections and relationships. I had a spreadsheet of people that I talked to, and I would not only have that opening conversation with them, but I would follow up with work samples or things that made me think of them. I do that to this day, just nurturing those connections that are important to you, and those people will think of you. It's not about who you know necessarily, but who knows you and what you bring to the table and who will advocate for you in rooms that you're not in. Also, doing as much as I could to make my skill set broad helped me a lot because it helped me narrow down what I found I was good at and what I enjoyed. Being an industry expert by listening to tons of sports media podcasts and understanding the context of my industry, where trends are going, and what our competitors are doing has been key.