How To Write For The Sports Industry (Video)

Great vid! Terry has shared some great insights on how to be an effecting sports industry writer and overcoming the difficulties associated with it. His vision on the Journalist of the Future is awe-inspiring!

Interesting post. I have made a twitter post about this. My friends will enjoy reading it also.

Well done. I hope others enjoyed this as much as I did.

This is quite helpful Lewis. Thanks for letting us know about this through your blog.

Yeah I agree, Lewis. You have passion and enthusiasm for sports and it shows. You specialize on giving us insight and you do great at it. It goes back to what Terry said: Differentiate yourself. Great advice.

-Steve

This is really cool. thanks a lot for posting it, I am truly impressed!

Rina

Steve,

Great comments! I agree fully with you on what you said. Look at myself for example.... I had zero writing or reporting skills yet I started out hustling and trying to get stories from key people in the industry.... the more people follow their passion and stick to a niche, the better off they will be.

Thanks for your comments once again!

This is a great piece Lewis and I appreciate it. It's interesting, and brings up the new point like the others suggested - where is the future of journalism going? During my studies at the University of Miami School of Communication, we had a few seminars discussing this exact topic.

As we are well aware, the future is in the hands of the online media and technology. How are these newspapers and journals going to provide added value?

From my understanding, it wouldn't surprise me to see big newspaper entities start to head towards a more magazine style approach. The use of in-depth feature stories, different layouts with more visual appeal that could be delivered once a week instead of on a daily basis. Not so much entertainment wise, but in-depth investigative reporting. While they can still provide news in print, the online media can provide up to the minute stories through email, texts to mobiles, or to your RSS readers more efficiently.

Bill Simmons of ESPN.com commented on the state of journalism and the quality of the news reporters and journalists. He believes the quality of journalism is going down with so many bloggers, online news reporting that is up to the minute, and the need to get the news that will get readers in a timely manner. The problem here is will the journalists get lazy and not perform the investigative reporting necessary; will they stop digging deep and seeking out great newsworthy stories?

An example from the sports industry and the Boston media can be seen by looking at the Kevin Garnett story. KG is one of the biggest icons in Boston, yet nobody in the media could find out what was really wrong with his knee untill this past week? That speaks to the lack of investigation on the reporters behalf.

Its funny, at a business seminar in Boston just this past week on social media, the panel discussed how journalists with such a strong writing background can transition to marketing online with social media highly effectively. That is something that I discovered quickly. A properly trained journalist with abilities to seek out stories, ideas, write creative and deliver messages clear and concise would be the ideal social online media marketer and blogger.

I just think it's important that journalists don't become a dying breed; that we differentiate ourselves from the average blogger with strong sources, style, and writing.

Thanks,
Steve Montani Bartlett

Trevor,

I think we all need to be able to reinvent ourselves when economies, technologies, or ideas change. The future is already here for most industries, and the sports industry will be feeling a strong wind blow them over if it does not start adapting to what Terry says....(even though Terry doesn't want to adapt to it). Ill be looking forward to reading his book once he gets around to it :)

I think that the idea of specializing early fits in a lot of situations. Doing everything is a lot of work, and someone is always going to beat you in one area or another.

If you specialize and focus on one thing, then it's a totally different ballgame.

Nice Work Lewis with Terry Lefton. College kids ask me this question all the time and now I can just direct them to your interview on Facebook!
Thanks
Dan Duquette

After 15 years at this Sports PR stuff, Terry is one of my great friends in the sports media. He's a straight shooter that gives no B.S. and accepts no B.S.

Good to see him here.

Truth is Terry is one of a kind and there is no room for anyone else like him..........he has reached a plateau that few do and I'm sure he will do the same in his future book adventrures if he ever gets/takes the time to put it together...........the best of success my friend........EXCELSIOR....................Tony

As a PR person working in the sports industry, I've known and worked with Terry for over 20 years. There's no BS'ing Terry and never call him up to make sure he got your press release! Solid reporter and very knowledgeable who I always found to be very fair. He respected the job I had to do. Only thing that bothered me about Terry was he oftentimes knew what was going on in my company before I did. But he always gave me an opportunity to comment before he ran his story. That's being a good reporter.

Nice work Lewis.......I like the part where Terry discusses his vision of the "Journalist of the Future" (ie. blogging, podcasts, video blogs, etc).......and how he has no interest in going there. The industry is changing and those that embrace social media will lead the charge. He did have some great advice regarding picking a specialty to separate yourself from the competition.