Past The 'Keeper

George Solomon was the sports editor at the Washington Post for many years. He was also the first ombudsman for ESPN.

Staff for print news has been cut drastically but noted there are lots of jobs with writing for internet sites and TV networks.

Journalism:

• What to look for when hiring employees:

1. Clips, getting published as much as you can (Broadside and Connect2Mason.com are good)
2. Become good reporters — make phone calls, get stories straight
3. Learn how to break stories. Be first to get important information to the public.
4. Write good stories
5. Read good stories to learn from what those reporters/writers are saying
6. Stretch yourself — find something interesting in different newspapers that you don’t typically read
7. Set your goals high
8. Volunteer to write/work nights and weekends to show you are willing to do whatever it takes to be great
9. Make sure you are doing what you love

Solomon mentioned that he once told (and now regrets) Mitch Albom, writer of two sports nonfiction bestsellers, that he needed to work on his writing!

You must be curious in order to get more knowledgable about thing going on, how newspapers from other states/countries write so that you can expand your writing skills.

For the most part, if you go out of your way to ask writers for help, they will go out of their way to help you.

Sports Journalism in Washington

• Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon were two of the biggest names to come out of the Washington Post and succeed elsewhere.
• Hired David Remnick, now the editor of The New Yorker
• The Washington Examiner stopped covering Sports and lost competition with the Washington Post. No competition makes the audience lose interest.
• Solomon made sure that his reporters were first to report stories. If another newspaper broke the story first, he was not a happy man!

“Cesc Fabregas could still lift the Carling Cup for Arsenal at Wembley” read a headline for The Guardian.

So, basically Arsenal was preparing for their injured captain to lift the trophy, which would be great for him. He’s led the team throughout the tournament so it would be fitting to end it with him on the field to accept the trophy.

But the game was still days away. And Birmingham were ready to give them as much as they could.

“We have to play our own style and that can hopefully upset Arsenal. It’s 11 v 11, they’re not superhuman. If we hit the right levels then we are capable of causing an upset.”

Those were the words of Birmingham manager Alex McLeish. His team put up quite a fight all game long and while Arsenal clearly looked the better side, their pass-first mentality came back to bit them with the game tied 1-1 and Birmingham pushing for their second goal to put them ahead of the second-best team in the English Premier League and Obafemi Martins made that happen on his second touch of the game after shocking miscommunication from keeper Wojciech Szczesny and defender Laurent Koscielny.

This embarrassment capped a game that Arsenal deserved to lose. They let Birmingham hang around and keep their confidence level high throughout the match. It was a deserving game and much credit needs to be given to the visitors for their continual efforts.