Whose Relationship is This?

February 19, 2017 at 9:22 am

They used to call it “Public Relations”…now it’s “Media Relations”….I’m applying for a new category, “Player Relations”…

In this age of social media and sites like The Players Tribune, it seems as if the people that work for the team as liaisons with the press wind up spending more time putting out fires with the players first running interference, if you will…Once the primary source of information about what was going on within a team, these PR/Media Relations people have, in many cases become teachers, advisers, and yes, babysitters…

Laura Verillo of the New York Mets and Bill Wanless from the Pawtucket Red Sox were guests at our Boston University Sports Journalism Seminar Series most recently  and after spending minor league time in Idaho, Iowa and New Mexico, Verillo has learned that it’s much easier for her to be proactive with the players before the (public comment) fire even starts; “If you don’t want to be asked about something by a reporter later and have to elaborate further than just your 140 characters, it’s best to just leave it alone.”…She’s referring to the player’s new found freedom of putting their message and opinions out in the open but  perhaps not fully realizing there are consequences….Those consequences, in turn, have become her job…

No team wants to find themselves listed on any internet site of “5 Most Heated Locker-room Incidents”, no matter how much, we as fans, like to watch….Sometimes it just happens…

And then there’s Boogie Cousins…

Unhappy about a reporter injecting his family into a story, Cousins made it quite clear how he felt and it turned into some long hours for the Sacramento Kings Media staff…..Like him as a player, or not, Cousins has a point, to a point…He, and to an argued extent, his D-League brother, are public figures…They should expect scrutiny…But it doesn’t men he has to like it…

Young reporters have to tread lightly as they wind their way into the work place…none more so than a professional locker-room…

Wanless, related a story about a veteran ESPN reporter who has adopted a practical approach to going about his job…Now granted, ESPN doesn’t always work on a deadline but it still seems to work for this guy; “They (the players) have a pressurized job, a hectic schedule…instead of saying hey, I need to do this story now, say to them, “would you have some time tomorrow maybe that we can sit down and talk, I have a story idea, I only need 5, 10 minutes of your time” and that works wonders”…As I said, it’s great if your doing a feature but in the end it still puts you in a better position than the Sacramento Bee…

Like much of what happens in professional sports, it’s a “player’s league”…people pay top dollar to see the players, not the coaches, not the referees, certainly not the PR/Media staff…So, there’s a huge amount of fawning…

“Build that relationship, build that trust” stressed Wanless…Verillo stated, “Do your homework, know people’s faces, know their names”…

It sounds simple but in reality, it’s so much more…I always see this seminar as a great way for students to learn from the people they are going to interact with…It’s always great when I learn something too…

Next week, Play by Play…

 

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A Fine Line….

February 5, 2017 at 8:20 am

"They're just people like you and me"...We hear that all the time when trying to explain how to interview, how to get close to an athlete...But what that doesn't take into account is that, often times, there's a a jealousy, maybe even an envy going on, in that these same athletes can swish a basket from twenty feet, throw a ninety five mile an hour fastball or put a puck through a goaltender's legs with amazing accuracy...Reporters figured out at some point they couldn't do that anymore and did the next best thing, they saw a way to stay around the game, sports journalism...

The athlete/media relationship is one of the cornerstones to learning how to survive in world of sports journalism...Face it, you need them more than they need you...And sometimes that gets in the way...

At a recent Boston University Sports Journalism Seminar, Ian Thomsen of NBA.Com and Boston Celtics first year player Jaylen Brown came at the topic from different sides....

Brown was accompanied to the seminar by veteran Media Relations expert Jeff Twiss, Vice President of Media Services for the Celtics and while we'll deal with that media relations  subject later in the semester, Twiss told the students "This is their office, their setting, be aware of that"...Imagine players, writers, bloggers coming into your dorm, your apartment, your classroom,  sticking iphones, recorders and video cameras into your face(s) to find out why you didn't do so well on that last quiz!...you'd probably get cranky too if it happened every day before AND after the quiz..."Gee Jordan, how do you think you're gonna do on this big test in ten minutes, did ya study, do you know your stuff?"....Followed after by, "Jordan, what were you thinking when you answered that question five (wrong)?...What's it gonna take to do better next time?"...And "talk about question 12"...Let me go ask Coach (Shorr) or some of your teammates!!...

Then Jordan gets to read all about it on every social media site known to human kind...But if he's lucky he adopts an attitude like Brown, "I don't want to let it bring me down" he answered when asked if he reads what people write and say...Thomsen has seen his share of the other side however, having been pulled aside by athletes who don't like what he said, even though, often times, it comes secondhand, "Sometimes I agree with them"...A good approach not always accepted among the media...

While getting the information is the goal here, it's just as important to remember where you are and what you're doing...Thomsen readily acknowledges that he learns so much from "these guys" and that listening is a formula for success...Brown, who just happens to be younger than every student in the class, has an engaging perspective on the process...."I definitely think there's a line (about what you can ask)...but sports and real life are separate"...Reporters are going to push but Brown counters with "It's up to the person (the athlete) to determine where that line is"...

That's pretty much what it is in a nutshell....And if you think about it, life is pretty much like that as well...Be aggressive but be respectful...Do your homework (literally) and never settle.....

Next week: Beat Reporting with Zach Cox of NESN and Brian Robb from CBS Boston

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Are We Better Off?

January 28, 2017 at 10:55 am

With apologies to The Temptations, sports journalism in the year 2017 is a "Ball of Confusion"...

Not a socially conscious song that fits the times but rather a jumble of ideas and "Hot Topics" that vie for our attention...Newspapers, don't read them...local (Sports) News, don't watch it... Sports Talk Radio, all they do is yell at each other and take inane callers...

So sports fans, where are we?

I'm struck by the inordinate amount of journalists who don't worry about content but rather spend their time making sure the presentation is what matters...Make a name for yourself, get people taking about you, not necessarily what you've written, said, posted...As long as it stirs the pot , it's relevant...

Trenni Kusnierek joined us this week for our initial sports journalism seminar and and put it very succinctly it says here; "If I'm vanilla, no one one is going to want to listen"... She is referring to her appearances on sports talk radio but just look at what (and who) is making news these days and it could be any platform.....Dan LeBatard fired the first salvo of Super Bowl LI when he compared the racial makeup of the two teams wide receivers... I think they call that submission by omission (Malcolm Mitchell, Michael Floyd, Matthew Slater come to mind but hey, it doesn't fit the argument)...Don't let facts get in the way of a good story...

Let's not even get started on the Tom Brady/Donald Trump issue...Is there really anyone out there who believes a one time New England Patriot fan is NOT going to watch the Super Bowl in a week because Brady admits to being friends with the President of the United States?...Please!....

Kusnierek, on a recent stint on WEEI Sports Radio said "If people aren't sending you hate mail or saying bad things about you, you're not doing your job"...Translate, be outrageous, be edgy...But does that go so far to add, even if you don't believe what you're saying?"...Is it all for the "show"?...I hate that we've gotten to that point but with more journalists than ever vying for attention, maybe that's what it has simply become...

Super Bowl Media Day was once one of the coveted assignments...The League controlled who got in, how much time you got, where you could roam...Now they sell tickets (to the fans)!....what's that about?...Has the N-F-L sunk to such a level that they worry about having to buy interest?...It looks like a stretch...

We've come to accept the World of 140 characters...But it seems like "sports lite"...Not much in depth, no more long form...Instant and fat free....

"So, round and around and around we go
Where the world's headed, nobody knows"...

Those song lyrics sum it up pretty well....insert the words sports journalism before "world's" and you have the landscape in 2017....

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Win One For the “GIF-fer”

May 1, 2016 at 8:29 am

When Knute Rockne evoked the name of George Gipp at halftime of the 1928 Notre Dame - Army football game, I don't think he had twenty-first century journalism in mind...

But just like Rockne was trying to rally the troops, so too has a new tool rallied the internet world of sports journalism, the GIF...Pronounce it either way, like the peanut butter with a "J" or with a hard "G", these short videos have captured the attention of readers/viewers and made celebrities out if those who can master them...The Graphics Interchange Format...

Just ask Pete Blackburn... Blackburn writes primarily for UPROXX now and uses these short videos to enhance his ideas...In fact, people search for Pete's videos as much as they do his writing...He recognized he needed something to drive the traffic and took a shot; "Nobody was coming to me to read what I thought about the Bruins because I wasn't established in the field yet.  I figured I could say, hey, here's something that I'm doing that no one else is doing.  This is a reason to come to me"...And it worked....

This was our final sports journalism seminar of the semester and while we've tried to deal with many issues during that time my goal was really to open your eyes...It's been comfortable for you here but the time has come to put what you've learned to work...

I'd never met Pete before but couldn't have agreed with him more as he spoke about where aspiring journalists go astray..."People can sense when you're not genuine.  You have to be self-aware.  Are you funny?  If you're not funny, don't try to be because it won't be funny.  You have to be aware of what your strengths are.  If you're funny, then go for it and make jokes.  If your strengths lay in numbers, or your strengths lay in being analytical, that will get you an audience as well.  You just have to realize what your strength is and then figure out how you can provide something that somebody may not be able to."

As some wise man once told you - "You do something better than anyone else in the world, you just have to figure out what that is"

Finally, I was inspired.....I don't have a PVR, although I might just get one...So, I gave it a try...rudimentary, for sure, but as the title says, "It never gets old"...

As that (sometimes) wise man also said, "If I can do it, you can do it"....

 

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And Away We Go!

April 24, 2016 at 8:49 am

Okay, show of hands....How many of you have been to Fort Walton Beach, Florida, or Creston, Iowa or Butte, Montana?...

Well, get familiar because that's where the jobs are!...And you know what?...That's a good thing...Smaller markets are where you really learn your craft, where you make mistakes that won't get you fired and where you get that story that eventually you'll pass along to other young journalists when they ask, "How'd you get your start?"...Everyone has one and now it's your turn...

You can do this!...You really can...

When Greg Lang, Assistant Sports Editor of the Boston Globe and Anchor/Reporter Katarina Luketich of WXXV in Biloxi, Mississippi and a Boston University graduate visited our sports journalism seminar series recently, their words echoed, at least in my mind, what you've been told now over and over, YOU ARE READY!..."At a small paper, you will be asked to write, take pictures, take video, probably be asked to edit video, be involved in the website in some fashion, be involved in social media, be involved in technology 'X' that hasn't been invented yet but in two years we'll all be talking about, said Lang...Now correct me if I'm wrong but that pretty much sounds like exactly what you're doing now for the Free Press, or WTBU or BUTV10...And look at it this way, you'll get paid for it...Sure, it's the unknown but life is full of unknowns...

You have skills that small market employers need...And the jobs are there...I understand... You've fallen in love with Boston but it's time to be realistic, you're not gonna start here...

In fact, you may not not even do what you originally set out to...Take Katarina, for instance...She was a sideline reporter, anchored a sports show on BUTV and desperately wanted to do sports when she left...And for a year she did just that, covering the New Orleans Saints, the University of Mississippi and even Double "A" baseball for a year in South Mississippi...But one day she got bitten by the news bug and hasn't looked back..."I fell in love with news , I fell in love with politics, I fell in love with education...They offered me a one person sports department or I could do a morning anchor spot and I didn't want to give up news.  For me personally it was the best decision because had I taken a job somewhere else I would have missed something I was really good at"...Lang agrees..."Don't limit yourself by what you're thinking right now, what you want to do.  Go with the flow a little bit.  I would encourage you to be someone who's willing to change direction.  It's more important (now) than ever"...

And remember, it won't be forever...It's the process that every journalist goes through, any journalist who works more than a week and a half in the industry...Embrace that...Don't spend your entire time there thinking about how small town it is, how you can't wait to get out...That attitude will begin to show and in the end it just might hold you back..."(Some of my colleagues) hate it!, mentioned Luketich, they hate it because it's Mississippi, not where they want to be and because they're so focused on hating it, it shows in their work.  They're not getting to know the area, they're not getting the most of it that they could"...

You're ready for this...embrace it...It's what was meant to be...Yakima, Washington, here we come!

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JockSpeak

April 17, 2016 at 10:45 am

Do you have to be a former athlete (at a high level) to comment on TV, radio and in the media?....Are they the only ones who truly understand what's happening on the court(field,ice)?.... I think it depends on who you talk to...

For every Boomer Esiason and Jay Bilas there's a Magic Johnson and Trev Alberts...For every Vince Scully and Al Michaels, there's a Jim Rome and Skip Bayless...Let's not even get started on Ray Lewis or Dick Butkus....

Athletes are competitive and when their careers are over it's sometimes a hard transition, at any level.....Everyone wants one more day, one more game, it's addicting...For the lucky few who get a media job afterwards, it can be rewarding but at the same time humbling...

At our recent sports  journalism seminar series we were lucky enough to be joined by Ryan Whitney, who played eleven years in the National Hockey League and won a silver medal at the 2010 Winter Games and by Dalen Cuff, a division one basketball player at Columbia University and now a co-host on ComcastSportsnet New England...

Whitney didn't shy away from the cameras when he played and got to a point where he realized maybe this was something for him..."I always thought I would ask a way better question and in a certain way.  Some guys would just want to answer it and get it over with.  I was just more interested in what they were asking.  Some athletes are like that, some just want nothing to do with it."...The former B-U star now uses Twitter and the Players Tribune to express himself and share his views and ask those questions himself...

But what about criticism?...Do players expect you, as a former high level athlete, to take it easy on them?...Cuff jumped all over that one; "You can't hide from anything you say, you're watching the game, you're assessing the strengths and weaknesses of what's going on, on the court.  That person can't be that mad at you, they know what they did wrong, the coach is gonna tell them too.  I'm just educating the people who are listening to the game because they're not going to hear all the stuff the coach has to say."

This past week there was a classic case of "former athlete(s) vs full time reporter right here in Boston...The long time argument that we've talked about in class, do you have to be there in the locker room to have a valid voice?...As it turned out, it was two former professional athletes, Lou Merloni and Christian Fauria of WEEI sports tale radio vs. Jimmy Murphy, who covers the Bruins for DirtyWaterMedia, among other internet sites...Here's some of the back and forth....

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Newcomers Welcome!

April 4, 2016 at 4:25 pm

"Be aggressive!"...Maybe easier said than done, especially for someone who's never been in a locker room or asked a coach how they gave up six goals or had more followers than just family and friends...But to listen to Jared Carrabis tell it, what do you have to lose?....Carrabis and Joon Lee have resumes that 30 something(s) would die for... And yet Lee hasn't finished college yet and Carrabis is just two years out!....

But being a "newcomer" doesn't start after school anymore...There's no reason to wait, your website is your signature nowadays and it should be just as distinct.......As should your Twitter account, your Linkedin page and according to Carrabis, even your MySpace page!

Colleges are supposed to be the places where students learn a craft, acquire the tools...I'm not sure it works that way anymore, not entirely...You already have a "voice"...It's time to use it...I don't think it's any secret that i fell on the side of face to face reporting (as opposed to couch sitting)...I learned my craft in the locker rooms and editing rooms and always felt in order to be legitimate, i had to be there...But social media has changed everything and the public will eventually decide who succeeds and who fails...Even the athletes(and the teams) have taken to starting their own sites...One of these days the players will start critiquing the reporters!..."Can you believe the question that clown asked?" or ""Yeah, but did you see those shoes?"

I guess the point I'm trying to make is you're already a newcomer (to world of being a digital native)...Is there any among you who hasn't blogged or posted or commented or written for a site?...Well then, you're a newcomer...Money isn't going to be the deciding factor anymore...

I left it up to Lee to pass along some words of wisdom to the group, some of which are older than he is; "Sometimes you can feel in over your head, not necessarily knowing which way to turn.  If you need something, ask for it."

One of the best parts of this seminar series for me, as I've said before, is meeting new people (with new ideas)...Chad Finn included Carrabis and Lee on his 75 Best Twitter follows in Boston Sports and we're lucky he did....We got interesting guests and  I, to an extent, became a "newcomer" myself....Maybe just in attitude but I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks...

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Yakety Yak…

March 27, 2016 at 10:55 am

I have to admit, I listen to sports talk radio in Boston but as someone who worked in television for a hundred years and had six, yes six, tv's blaring in my office 24 hours a day, it's as much for the noise as anything else...Breaking news doesn't exist much on radio and those updates break are virtually useless when they tell me the Bruins/Celtics won last night almost twenty four hours after the game has been played!....But every once in a while I'm sucked in when the anchors actually do something other than, a) interview some cliche speaking athlete, b) the aforementioned out of date update or c) crap on the other station in town...In essence, when they are themselves...

I'm a sports fan, granted not as big as I used to be but whose tastes haven't changed?...The only thing worse than a four hour baseball game is talk about a four hour baseball game!...And trade deadline/draft day previews go in one ear and out the other...The fact is, I'm a television baby, having grown up on black and white images that brought the world into my home...Audio alone just doesn't cut it for me...So you'd better be special to keep me around....

So when Rob Poole, aka "Hardy" and Jim Murray joined us at the Boston University sports journalism seminar series I was prepared to hear what passes for culture nowadays....Was I ever wrong!...Here were two guys who take their crafts seriously, with an amazing understanding of what makes good communication, let alone sports talk radio...These guys were thoughtful, well spoken and perhaps most importantly, entertaining...

Now, that's not to say all of the current shows translate that way but it's a start...Even the antagonism is listenable...(maybe i liked this because it had video?-feel free to comment) ...

http://www.csnne.com/show/49360/episode/1070261

With all due respect to Boston Sports MediaWatch, this isn't the lowest hanging fruit by any means...

Having started teaching a sports talk radio class this semester, I have a new appreciation for anyone who can fill two hours (in most cases without calls) and maintain a conversation without dead air...But as Hardy pointed out it's not enough to just fill that time...You need to evoke some listener emotion..."The main thing is to have an opinion and don't worry about being disliked...They (the audience) have to love you or they have to find you aggravating and annoying and despise you and either way people are going to listen"...

I know I am...now if I can only get them to "advance the story!"......

 

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You Make the Call…

March 20, 2016 at 11:09 am

Your assignment is simple...show up at the game, talk about what's going on with the person sitting next to you, get excited and when it's all over, go to the bank and deposit a check!....How could this not be the best gig in sports  journalism?

The answer? - it is!....It's play by play and any sports journalist has done it at one point or another...whether it's playing in the driveway ("time running down, 3 seconds, 2, 1, he shoots - it's good!...it's good!!)... on the diamond, ("there's a long drive to deep center!) or the 18th green ("it's in the hole!), we've imagined ourselves the voices of some announcer trumpeting our own winning accomplishment...

And really, you're gonna pay me to do it?...You can't be serious...My first on air job included doing play by play for the Malden High School football games for the princely sum of $10 a game (1972 Waltham vs Malden, future all pro Fred Smerlas starting for the Hawks) and when i saw my name on a check from Malden Cablevision I thought I had made the big time...

So when Jeff Mannix and Chris Sedenka visited the Boston University Sports Journalism Seminar Series recently we got to revel in their passion...Here are guys living the dream...Getting to sit court/rinkside and describing the action while fans listen in...

So what makes a good play by play call?...."Essentially you're writing a book with your voice, said Sedenka, and that's something that appeals to me the most"...Mannix often relies on his listeners for feedback, "the best compliment I can get is when someone says you made me feel like I was in the arena, if I haven't done that, I've failed my listener"...

Both Mannix and Sedenka stressed preparation as they key to doing the job well, a job, for  young play by play announcers that might include selling tickets and in the case of ESPN Radio's Ryen Rusillo, even being the mascot for the Trenton Thunder...trenton thunder

Thankfully i never had to do either in that first stop...I was the post game cable "wrapper" returning all the mic and monitor wires to the "Rocket Remote" truck...A skill I learned, that to this day, i'm proud of, a skill I passed along to my son who put it to practice while working the B-U hockey and basketball games...stop by I'll teach you!

We all have our own favorites, announcers and calls...It's one of those great debates that makes for long hours of conversation and reminiscing...I could fill this column with list after list...

"Do you believe in miracles?" and "Havlicek stole the ball!" come to mind but indulge me a few others:

Start with Howard Cosell's call back in 1973.....

Boxing not your thing?....how about some local N-B-A action?

For Emily Tillo -

Pretty Good indeed!...

And finally, one simple word is sometimes all it takes...

Now it's your turn...post your favorite and let the argument begin!

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Say It Ain’t so……

March 11, 2016 at 10:19 am

They have become a punch line....less than a week after resigning as a reporter for ComcastSportsNet, Jess Moran and Red Sox Manager John Farrell are a joke, literally!

In an story about how Boston's winter teams are enjoying success, Dan Shaughnessey quips "The Celtics' and Bruins" seasons might last longer than John Farrell as Red Sox manager."  Now granted, much of this analogy might have to do with the Sox won/loss record but ever since word of the "relationship" surfaced, people are wondering (aloud) "just how long will ownership put up with this (two year) affair"

I can't imagine that either Farrell or Moran intended get to this point but so they have and it says here, they have no one to blame but themselves ...

"I'm just so damned disappointed", said Jackie MacMullan, just recently on WEEI Sports Talk Radio's Dale and Holley Show..."this can't happen, it's unprofessional"...

Some might call it unethical as well...At a recent Boston University sports journalism seminar on race and gender I asked Dr. Kyoung-yim Kim, of the Boston College Sociology department,  when athletes say they shouldn't be considered role models are they just trying to avoid responsibility ?..."That's if you assume they have responsibility"...a telling answer...

I talked with a freelance sports journalism friend of mine and she at first her reaction was "Doesn't she understand what she was risking?"...But later as she thought more about it she asked me "Are we holding her more responsible than him?"...Since Moran resigned, perhaps it seems that way in the short term...Farrell refuses to comment on the liaison and with each day's passing, the situation moves to the background of the news cycle...

At that same seminar with Dr. Kim, Boston Herald deputy managing editor Zuri Berry talked about where athletes learn the standards by which they lead their lives...Said Berry, "I would hope they'd get their values from the leaders and leader figures in their lives (before they start playing).  The problem is, it's not always the case."

What was the message  Farrell sending to his players in this case?...And how about to the reporters covering the team?Journalists spend years forging relationships based on trust and honesty...Why now would a player possibly share information with a reporter if the player thought that same information might find its way back to the manager?...There's no way a reporter, Moran in this case, can continue to operate in that environment...

Women who cover sports teams have a hard enough job without being painted with a broad brush...When Wendi Nix worked at WHDH TV she was married to the Red Sox General Manager Ben Cherrington...All kinds of scenarios could have occured but both were incredibly professional about it...She covered the Red Sox and never used him as a source...In fact, at a seminar they both shared, Nix recounted a story about Johnny Damon's departure from the Sox after the 2005 season...Nix and Cherrington were having a meal at a Boston restaurant when her phone rang...It was Johnny's agent, whom Nix had contacted for an update....As it turned out, the update was that Damon had chosen the New York Yankees but Nix couldn't tell anyone yet because the Yankees hadn't made it official!....Nix looked at Cherrington, smiled and never said a word, never even telling him who the caller was....

Let's hope more sports journalists can act in as polished a manner as Nix did that day....

 

 

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