Sportswriters

Michael D. Dorsher

While sports coverage is often called “the toy department” in many newsrooms, sportswriting is fiercely competitive, difficult to succeed at, and harder yet to sustain. Sportswriters must pay attention to detail like a copy editor, analyze events like a political reporter, dig into some stories like an investigative journalist, work under tight deadlines like a cops reporter, and, ideally, write like a poet. Those who master this art are often the best writers on their publications—and the ones many readers turn to first. Sportswriters and the athletes they cover have a symbiotic relationship they seldom acknowledge but ignore at their mutual peril. Surly athletes can suck all the fun out of games for sportswriters, and unscrupulous sportswriters can rob athletes of the chance to perform well. Not only must sportswriters continually find new ways to chronicle dozens of games each season, they must continually heighten fans' interest in their professional ...

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