Past The 'Keeper

Julie Ward was the assistant sports editor at USA Today from 1989-2007 and is a past president of an organization called A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

After

Women make up 51% of the American population, yet there are such an extremely low amount of women writers.

Why are there so few women in leadership positions?

There is a very small amount in the pool to begin with.

The day after the 2011 Super Bowl there were no women’s bylines in 22 pages of the USA Today newspaper!

A lot ofo women do not choose the sports writing profession because it is tough. If they do get into it, they will need to get out of it soon after.

• They carry a bigger burden. They must be the caregivers to their family.
• Hours are awful (work weekends, etc.)
• When men get into sports writing, there is a large amount of them who stay until the end until they move up to the highest position they can. Therefore, there is limited high positions for women.

There needs to be more diversity.

When she would go into a meeting at USA Today, the first question they would ask was, “How much diversity do we have on our staff?”

As her career continued, she would find that she was the only woman in the meeting and felt that she was only invited to the meeting to be the “token woman.”

Mary Garber, a legendary and credentialed sports writer in the 1950’s, was not allowed to be in the press box. Shocking.

There are probably more women covering the White House than men (or at least 50-50) and there may be more women covering the business side of reporting, but other than those there most likely isn’t anything else that women reporters are near the same amount as men.

Photo courtesy of Steve Klein

Tom O’Connor, the athletic director at GMU talked about what it takes to be involved with a division I athletics program and what he expects out of his student-athletes.

What should intercollegiate athletics be about?

• Quality and balance. Be the best, meaning not only on the playing field but also in the classroom.
• Sportsmanship — the core value of intercollegiate athletics.

Sportsmanship involves yelling at the refs, getting a technical foul, etc.

• Have fun. The athletics department is similar to the “toys and games department” at a retail store.

Why?

Because it’s fun. Everybody enjoys going into the toys and games department and O’Connor wants everybody to feel the same involving athletics.

He referenced sports as a “side door” rather than the “main door” of the university. He truly believes that learning in the classroom is the main door and the most important aspect of being in a university.

The memorable 2006 Final Four run helped bring visibility to GMU and brought indirect marketing to the university with around $1 billion in free marketing and advertisement.

At first the criticism and attention that GMU had was negative from the media and as they had success, it turned into positive attention.

The sports budget — which I was apparently confused about — is frozen, not cut. All the money that the athletics has comes from people who pay to watch and also from outside donations. The coaches salaries and scholarship money was not cut. It stayed the same. But rather than flying to Dallas to play a team, they will just go to Baltimore to play someone else instead. O’Connor wants to focus on getting the basic human needs fulfilled first and foremost before anything else.

These are:

• Clothing
• Shelter
• Food
• Good equipment to play with

For GMU to have a football team, the money would come from student fee’s rather than tuition. But at this point in time, O’Connor hasn’t received the necessary funding from alumni to begin a football program at Mason. And if it does, he wants it to be big-time.

Let’s not think small. Think big.

Tom O'Connor speaking at GMU (Photo courtesy of Steve Klein

When the jerseys are put on and the games begin, George Mason University student-athletes become performers — but their lives beyond the sport are very similar to the typical college student.

A university-wide phenomenon has the typical student believing that student-athletes are spoiled with benefits.

Though for the most part, the truth is quite the opposite.

“We hold our student-athletes to high standards,” said GMU’s assistant vice president and athletics director Tom O’Connor. “Many people don’t know this but on average, student-athletes at Mason have a higher overall GPA than our non-athletes on campus. They aren’t spoiled.”

O’Connor, who spoke at GMU Thursday, defended the notion that student-athletes receive more benefits in the classroom than the typical Mason student.

In addition to being held to similar high standards in the classroom, GMU student-athletes also use the same facilities on campus as every other student.

Student-athletes are most notably seen working out next to the typical Mason student at GMU’s gym facilities, including the RAC, the Aquatic and Fitness Center, and Skyline.

“I live in the Student Apartments, which is right by the RAC, and I love working out in that place,” said Chase Miller, a sophomore on Mason’s soccer team. “The facilities on campus are awesome and I have no problem running on the treadmill next to a non-athlete.”

In addition to sharing the same facilities, student-athletes go through the same housing registration process as every other student on campus.

“We don’t get benefits when it comes to housing,” said Dustin Butcher, a junior on the GMU soccer team. “We have our scheduled time that we have to register just like everyone else and if we don’t get it done, we are stuck with the same issues as them.”

That schedule caused problems this semester that every student was worrying about — including the student-athletes.

“There was a glitch in the system with the high amount of people registering at the same time,” Butcher said. “My roommates and I all had to wait and wonder if we would get the room we wanted, just like the other people on my floor who don’t play sports. And it turned out that we didn’t get it.”

While nearly all student-athletes and non-athletes had to deal with those same housing issues, the players on Mason’s basketball team didn’t have the same worries as the rest of their fellow students.

“I will admit that the basketball team gets some extra benefits that the typical student and student-athlete doesn’t receive,” said O’Connor. “And to be honest, it comes from a business and recruiting standpoint so we can bring better players into the program and get more revenue at games if we do well.”

Jeff Zillgitt is the NBA beat reporter for USA Today.

There is a place for every young journalist, you just need to find out where that place is. You are churning out copies all the time so you don’t get much time with any one story.

You might not break every story, but you don’t want to miss any story. You must be aware of it all and keep track of the stories that are constantly coming out. There is no problem acknowledging another newspaper when they report something.

It’s always a good thing to call a coach so they get to know you and create a relationship. But even if you have  a relationship with them, you should be critical if the player isn’t doing well or positive if they are.

Write the truth.

It’s not easy to get info out to the public, especially when the person does not want that story to get out. And while it may make both of you uncomfortable, at the end of the day, it’s your job. You must do it and ask questions.

You should know how to get information. This is important not only in journalism but also in the world outside of it. Employers love people who can do this.

The best interviews are not only when he was firing questions away at the player or coach but when he was able to strike a conversation with them so each of you are comfortable.

Even if you are not an expert in a certain sport, it’s really important to know who to ask and be confident enough to ask them any and all questions to help you do your job well.

Washington Redskins blogger, Matt Terl, a University of Maryland graduate, began with freelance work, not having a known path to what he wanted to do as a creative writing major.

Creative writing major? That’s right.

So how did he end up as a blogger for DC’s pro football team? Let’s find out:

As a die-hard Redskins fan, he first made sure there was some sort of content every day on his blog — whether good or bad. It was important to keep a steady flow of content.

He reached out to DC sports “bogger” Dan Steinberg to get his name out and possibly get a job. His wish was granted when he got an interview and was given a job to blog!

The start to the path which made him the team blogger initially began when he was part of the Redskins PR department. But finally he got what he really wanted.

To be the embedded fan.

He knew what people want to see. They wanted “the nooks and crannies.” And he would give it to them.

Terl began the first day of training camp in 2008 and going from an unknown figure to a well-known figure was very difficult, especially from those who doubted his abilities.

The transition was rough. But the ownership and General Manager never had a problem with what he blogged.

So he continued. And still does to this day, without a single doubt from anyone above him.

He stays giving fresh, new updated content each day. After all this is, in Terl’s opinion, the most important concept to understand when looking to be a writer/blogger in the future.

Jon DeNunzio began writing sports at the University of Virginia writing women’s soccer and fell in love with it all.

He covered high school sports, some college games, and began editing sports articles and eventuall got a full-time gig at the Prince William Express.

It’s imporant to pay attention to the “landscape” and must know what’s going on with everything around you. When George Solomon hired him as a full-timer at the Post, Solomon asked DeNunzio what he was reading outside of sports and journalism (hmm. Sounds like something our class heard on Tuesday). You gotta be well-rounded. Plain and simple.

As the User Activity Editor at the Post now, his job is to focus on user interactions on the editorial side of things. These include live chats, polls, crowdsourcing, comments. Basically he finds out what people and followers want to know to get stories on those things instead of only what is on the editor’s agenda.

Real reporters go into the heart of the story. At the 1996 Olympics, there was a bomb and a reporter he knew went straight toward the bomb.

That’s a real reporter.

What has not changed in journalism since he began:

• Ask the hard questions
• Find a job that pays well and secure your spot in the journalism business
• You are competing for jobs
• You must want to be a journalist and love it
• Must work hard and work long hours and must enjoy it — if you are busy, it is because people are interested and want to read your stories
• Must pay attention to details because it can get confusing (McLean School in Potomac, MD and a Potomac School in McLean, VA)

Without credibility as a writer, you have nothing!

• Keep it simple. The reporting and the facts is the most important — not the adjectives.

Twitter can help with keeping your writing simple. You can’t make things “flowery” with just 140 characters.

What has changed in journalism:

• Information is much more at your fingertips now than ever before
• The audience is more empowered now
• Readers don’t trust journalists the way they used to.
• Everything you say is evaluated — embraced or ignored
• The pace of the news
• Conversation is in real time
• Big-time personalities aren’t as influential as they used to be

As a final reminder and thought as DeNunzio leaves, make sure to listen to your audience.

They are who you are writing for.

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!

When writing Media Relations in Sports, Craig Esherick worked with two others who each had different focuses. Esherick looked at sports journalism from a coaches perspective, having coached at Georgetown University for many years before coming to George Mason University.

Worked at what is now called CBS Sports.

Did a lot of research for the book and needed to get his three chapters submitted at a deadline. His chapter on law ethics was cut almost in half. Being a lawyer, he felt people needed to know this part very well (and clearly a little too more than his editor felt they needed to know)!

People who helped Esherick write his part of the book:

Dan Steinberg, Caroline Miller, Steve Goff (traveling for sports)

Looking to write another book that will appeal more to the pulic than just the college students and professors who use Media Relations in Sports is.

“Coaches Corner” was an important part of the book because natural tensions between reporters, coaches, players, etc. and people needed to know what’s going through a coaches mind during certain times. Here are some parts within the “Coaches Corner.”

• Sports Information Director: Very important job for the coach because a coach doesn’t get the reputation he has by not recruiting great players. You must be able to see good players. Should be able to establish a relationship with the players.
• Interviewing Techniques/Questions: Know when to ask questions and how to ask them to a coach.
• How To Write a Media Guide: Coaches job is to sell a program so recruits will see it and be impressed. They must sell their program to the recruits, fans, students, etc.
• Gameday Event Management: Interviews during timeouts gets the producers and fans more involved in the game. Some coaches will allow reporters to interview them beffore/after games, some don’t like it.
• Publicity Campaigns: Important for a team’s star player(s) but you don’t want to single out one player and cause tension within the team so be careful with how it is done.
• Crisis Management: The standard for professionals must be must higher for pros than it is for college players and high school players.
• Coaches use of new media: Making use of new media with people who know what they’re doing. Get somebody on the staff who can use new technology well.

Important info from his three chapters of the book:

1. Language barriers — when in another country, how will you communicate?
2. Travel — hotel proximity to venue, security, working conditions, customs, press in terms of the interview process.
3. New technology — Twitter, social media, satellites being able to show a game all over the world creates employment opportunities for many people. ESPN has created so many jobs because they have so many channels and opportunities. They are even inventing games, such as the X Games, to create ways to expand the market.

Alan Goldenbach, writer for the Washington Post and professor at the University of Maryland-College Park, spoke about many things and was a fantastic person to listen to.

Access is a huge issue nowadays with sports. Here are some things that Alan mentioned

Pack journalism was an interesting topic he mentioned.

• It involves the many, many journalists who “pack” together in a room to interview and gather information about the person/team they are following.

The example he used was with Mike Shanahan, coach of the Washington Redskins. Before or after a game, he only has so many minutes to talk to the press. All those journalists want to ask their questions and get their own take on the game for their stories.

In contrast to pack journalism is what Alan called “Lone wolf journalism.”

• This is mainly the journalist who is covering a local high school team and doesn’t need to worry about other journalists hounding the same player or coach.

When interviewing a local high school athlete, you don’t need to only talk about the game and strictly ask them “interviewing questions” about the game. Try to talk about other things to make the player feel comfortable because as high schoolers, they may not be as comfortable as a professional player when doing interviews, but at least you have time to talk with them and get to know them.

More information into the shortest amount of space possible. Condense everything when you can.

“Shooting the breeze” with players and coaches during emails can help get lots of information out of them. This simply includes talking to them about things other than just the game. Make them feel comfortable with you.

He mentioned a story about a high school player with a nagging groin injury who has had trouble all season staying consistent. He would never have known why if he hadn’t asked the coach about the player just to keep the conversation going.

A Kent State University graduate, Mandy Jenkins is now the Social Media Editor for TBD.com, She expained that 90% of her work is listening, doing research, and getting information from people for relationship cultivating.

Twitter, networking and knowing the right people helped her and her fellow employees at TBD.com get their jobs within the organization.

It was interesting how she told us that when she first got to TBD.com for a job, they had her and the other hopeful employers sit down and write abouta nything that they wanted to write about for 30 minutes. She wrote about “big media” and how much she disliked it, the same things she blogs about on ZombieJournalism.com.

And they loved it! So from then on, she was an official employee of TBD.com. Very cool.

Crazy fact: She has about 9-10,000 followers on Twitter for TBD.com and barely had half of that when she worked at the Cincinnati Enquirer — the only newspaper in that area!

She introduced to me (and probably nearly all my classmates) to Twitter Search. This search engine seemed really cool in getting info about anything and everything that people tweet regarding whatever you want to find out about. For example, she explained how there was a fire in Dupont Circle. She searched “fire near DC” in the Twitter search and voila! She saw all the people who were tweeting and taking pictures about the fire and was able to interact with them on the spot!

And as far as local news is concerned, Mandy Jenkins and TBD did some amazing thigns for the people stuck in the winter storm during rush hour the other week. She was live tweeting to everyone who wanted to know what was going on in the exact area they were in to help them out and let them know the details.

Another thing she told us about was the Twitter Trends Map. This is a map on your computer screen that shows the world and what Tweet words are being said the most. This is really an amazing tool to be able to find out what’s big and happening in certain parts of the world.

She explained the difference between local, which is the type of news that TBD covers, and hyperlocal, which is the type of news that Patch covers.

Local:

• Coverage of an area with numerous cities in-between

For example, TBD covers all over the DMV, so it’s local (and regional) news.

Hyperlocal:

• Coverage of news specifically for a certain city, town or small area.

For example, Patch is hyperlocal because each city/town has its own Patch site and gives info to people living in that small area.