Pitching Articles:
As sports editor you will be
pitching sports articles to the staff writers during the Monday meetings every week at 3 p.m. Every page averages 3-5 articles, with photos and graphics included. The
sports section is always 2-3 pages. I would suggest pitching at least 8-10 sports articles for each issue. All articles must
have two human sources. It is suggested that athletes and coaches be used as sources when possible.
Types of Articles:
There are different types of
articles that you can pitch as sports editor. These articles include covering UCA sporting events, previewing sporting events,
doing feature sports articles and player profiles.
Articles
about UCA sporting events are written in a style similar to news articles. These articles are usually the most important of
the section. Unfortunately they also seem to be the hardest articles to persuade
staff writers into taking. See staff writer fears for reasons why
- UCA Sporting Event Previews
It is important to let the readers of The Echo know when UCA sporting events
are going to take place. The best way to do this is by pitching previews for future games. The previews should be for games
that are occurring within a week of the publication date on Wednesday. Read more about
previews in the previews section of this manual
As previously mentioned the most important sports articles are those covering
UCA sporting events, however, if those are the only articles in the sports section, the section can become boring and tiresome
and when only be interesting to hardcore sports fans. Feature sports articles are the kind of articles that will interest
readers who aren’t necessarily into sports. Here are a few examples of feature sports articles that I pitched during
my editorship: student racecar drivers, profile of athletic trainers, story on student baseball player chewing tobacco habits
and UCA steroid testing policies.
Player profiles are a good way to familiarize readers of The
Echo with the athletes of UCA. These are done in a very similar fashion to feature stories, but simply focus on one athlete
instead of a particular topic. Player profiles should be done on athletes who actually see frequent playing time on their
respective teams. Athletes who don’t see much playing time or redshirt freshmen should never be profiled. Staff writers
frequently forget to interview a second source for the player profiles, but they are needed.
Fears and Complaints of Staff Writers:
(Fall 2008 Staff Writers were polled)
Note: All staff writers enrolled in the Media Applications course are required to write at
least one sports article per semester.
- Some people just don’t
know a lot about sports
- Sports jargon/rules/terminology
can be confusing to some
- A lot of games are on weekends
and many staff writers go home on weekends
It is understandable that some staff writers who aren’t
knowledgeable about sports would have concerns or problems when it comes to writing articles. Therefore, you should find ways
to help them familiarize themselves with sports or make them more comfortable when writing these articles. Offering to attend
the sporting events with them is a good way to make them feel more comfortable about taking these articles.
Deadlines:
In the past the editor of The Echo has usually given each section editor the
say so as to deadlines for each section. The majority of section editors have opted for Friday at Midnight
to be their deadline in the past. The deadlines are ultimately at the discretion of the staff’s editor. Many sporting
events occur on the weekend and therefore any staff writer who takes these articles will of course need an extension to the
deadline. The length of deadline extension will be at your discretion, but it is suggested that the staff writer have the
article completed and turned in by either that night or the next morning.
Editing:
It is suggested that the articles be edited as soon as possible upon receiving
them from the staff writers. The reason for this is that there is essentially a chain of editing that goes on over the weekend.
Upon receiving the articles you should edit them for mistakes and content, and then you should e-mail them to the staff’s
associate editor who will edit the articles again and send them on to the editor to be edited once again. If you have an assistant
sports editor you might want to have the staff writers e-mail the articles to him/her to edit before you edit the copy yourself.
Photos:
It is your responsibility to let the photo editor know at the beginning of
the week which articles need photos.
Wednesday Meeting:
During the Wednesday meeting take the time to make sure that the staff writers
are working on their articles and that they aren’t having any difficulties with them.
