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.

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.

Wayne Rooney had probably the greatest goal of the year to give Manchester United the victory over Manchester City and put City even further back in their bid for the Premier League title.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1K7am5WnAQ

UNBELIEVABLE!

The celebration:

The headlines in England:

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.

Find your niche.

A big part of Grant Paulsen’s speech in class today was to find a niche for what you love to do. If you love the Washington Redskins for example — like he does — you should find a specific aspect of the team that you enjoy following. That way you will be “a little bit different than everyone else.”

The things that Grant say should stick in any young journalists mind. Why? Just check out who he really is.

As a reporter, you must be credible. That is the real difference between a reporter and an opinionated talk show host. They could talk all day long, but it is only their personal opinion.  It is not anything that is 100% factual.

The bottom line — you cannot be wrong as a reporter. You must accurately report every single story you break to the world — and there should be a lot in order to be credible.

“I’d rather get it best than get it first.” <<< That is a great quote to live by as a reporter.

You don’t just want to be the first to break a story. You want to be right, even if it is later than the other reporter who made something of the same story before you.

• DON’T BE WRONG.

Another good point: Be versatile with how you break stories. The quickest way to reach out to an audience is to go straight to the internet. Putting the story in the newspaper, a magazine, etc. is great — but it won’t give you the credibility you deserve for getting the story out quickest and accurate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90bUC6Eh0Oc&feature=fvstIt seems so easy for someone so small.

Lionel Messi can’t stop. He won the Footballer of the Year award a few weeks ago and then went to score a hat trick against Atletico Madrid just the other day. Like it was no big deal.

By way of the three goals, he jumped over Cristiano Ronaldo as the top goal scorer in the Spanish La Liga with 24 goals, 2 more than Ronaldo — in 2 fewer games.

In an amazing run by the little Argentine, Messi has scored an amazing 40 goals in 33 games — nearing his already-amazing total of 47 goals in 53 matches last season.

Wow. Words cannot even describe the tear that he is on.

He isn’t be a “pretty boy” like Ronaldo and crave the attention that Ronaldo needs. Messi just steps on the field and turns it into magic without caring about anything else. Of course, he struggled in the 2010 World Cup with his country, Argentina. He didn’t have the same support that his FC Barcelona teammates give and so he didn’t shine the way he was expected to shine.

But with Barca, he is able to create things and beat defenders in ways that do not seem real to the naked eye. He has a great supporting cast, as the attacking combo of Messi, Pedro and David Villa have scored 50 goals in La Liga so far this season.

And get ready for this:

That 50-goal total surpasses the total of any other team in the Spanish league this season.

After watching Messi sprint past his defenders, your jaw will drop in awe and amazement at what this little 5-foot-nothing (OK, 5’6” to be exact) footballer does. He will beat 5 defenders in a full sprint up field and before you know it, he could be back in his defensive end tackling the other team’s forward before he gets a shot off. It is absolutely incredible.

 Messi slithers past defenders, leaving them literally running into each other as they are blinded by the trail he leaves. The Barcelona fans bow down to him every time he scores, as he is looked upon as a near-God.

If he is not a God, he definitely has a bid in the “Soccer God” voting for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diMLYEFOomYWell, it was the most anticipated match of the weekend, Chelsea vs. Liverpool, and while Luis Suarez remained out of the starting lineup for the Reds,  the Blues put Fernando Torres straight into the starting lineup against his former team. While Torres’ attacking counterpart, Didier Drogba, slid the Spaniard through toward goal in the first half, his shot was blocked clear of goal from the stretching leg of defender Jamie Carragher. Unfortunately for Blues fans, that was the first and really the only chance their team would get. Maxi Rodriguez nearly put the visitors up with a wide open tap-in that hit the cross bar and careened away from the goal mouth, keeping the score tightly fixed at 0-0. But finally Raul Meireles volleyed a difficult bouncing ball past Chelsea keeper Petr Cech to put the Reds up 1-0 — a score which would stay until the final whistle. But with all the eyes on Torres, he did not disappoint. The combo of him, Drogba and Nicolas Anelka up front was supposed to be lethal. It wasn’t.

• Besides the one chance in the first half, Torres looked like a lost puppy on the field, unable to find a comfortable spot on the field to create space from his defender and attack Liverpool’s back line. He was subbed out in place of Salomon Kalou after 60 minutes of play.
• Anelka may as well have been called Casper, the friendly ghost with his disappearing act throughout the game. His impact was limited. He was unable to find a rhythm from the start and was often found deep underneath the strikers rather than high and wide in the positions he’s most dangerous in.
• Drogba worked hard, but he was rarely rewarded by himself or his teammates with scoring chances. He was not the attack-minded player that we are all used to seeing from him.

So, at least for today’s game, Drogba + Anelka + Torres = FAIL.

Maybe the next game for Liverpool will bring better results after the players gain a better understanding for each other during more practices. Only time will tell.