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.

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.