I’ve asked plenty of questions in my time as a journalist, but none like this one: have any current NASCAR drivers been inspired by Lightning McQueen?
I posed that question after taking a picture with a life-sized model of the iconic animated Pixar character in the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and the answer from NASCAR PR was, to my surprise, affirmative: yes, McQueen has attracted some of the sport’s burgeoning talents to its tracks. As someone who grew up in the generation that coveted Cars-themed merchandise and developed a deep respect for the movie’s soundtrack, I loved the answer from the NASCAR public relations team and the intersection between sports and cinema.
My three-day trip to Charlotte for the Associated Press Sports Editors summer conference featured a barrage of questions, the majority less whimsical than the impact of Lightning McQueen, but fascinating nonetheless. The conference theme was “Sports Journalism at a Crossroads,” and as someone who has studied sports journalism at the undergraduate and graduate level and has navigated a full-time job search in the sports journalism field over the past eight months, the topic couldn’t have been more pertinent. I also met plenty of award-winning industry veterans who shared their insights with me in our conversations, including Carolina Panthers beat writer Joe Person and my master’s reporting project advisor from Northwestern University, J.A. Adande.
From the panel on live event coverage to the “How We Did It” discussion between the APSE Contest winners that capped off my stay, these are the answers that stuck with me from the panels I attended at the 2024 APSE Summer Conference, one week later.
Social media can be your primary source of communication… or a set-up for a tantalizing tease
In the first session that I covered for the APSE website, three editors and one writer from The Athletic spoke about their varied approaches to notable live events. Reporter Tim Graham brought the audience through the methodology of his reporting on Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s collapse during Monday Night Football in 2023, while editor Scott Thurston of the Boston Globe explained his outlet’s strategy in covering the Boston Celtics, who won their 18th title earlier in the week.
The four outlets represented ranged from small market newspapers to major beat coverage, and the difference in social media usage was a fascinating difference as well. While Tony Maluso of the Baltimore Sun Media Group and John Bednarowski of the Marietta Daily Journal broke down how their outlets keep audiences up-to-date on games in their coverage areas through social media platforms, Graham expressed his preference to keep his best insights off of social media and in his articles, while using social media as a hook to draw in readers. The prevalence of social media has been one of the drivers of significant change in the journalism industry — the potential instant reaction to live events is certainly one of those changes — and each approach seemed to have merit for its respective outlet.
Artificial intelligence is a new addition to the sports journalist’s toolkit, for now
My final graduate course for journalism focused on using artificial intelligence to benefit business-to-business publications, and, as a student at the time, I remember reflecting on the staying power artificial intelligence seemed to have in the media. APSE’s panel on artificial intelligence in sports journalism validated that trend, as writers and editors from a diverse array of outlets spoke about how they’ve incorporated artificial intelligence tools into their day-to-day operations.
The conversation made me more confident in the efficiency artificial intelligence can instill in sports journalism, and at the same time, extremely fearful for the health of the sports journalism industry with AI-powered articles taking over many of the responsibilities writers once held. The positives: advanced versions of spell check, opportunities for expanded quantities of content at outlets like the Associated Press, the ability to draft up FOIA requests through ChatGPT and the automation of rote tasks. But that avenue seems likely to adversely affect sports writers and editors, in my own opinion. How many jobs might be lost when AI can effectively complete a task for free? What happens when outlets don’t disclose usage of AI in titles or articles? How much will audiences value human-written content versus AI content, and will human-written content at some point not be worth a paywall? A staple of my sports journalism education was writing a game recap, and it’s sobering to know that a computer can now receive a box score from a game and generate an article that can identify notable outcomes and pass off as worthy of legendary media brands’ mastheads.
Every opportunity you get is an opportunity to impress
My favorite part of the conference’s programming was the same this year as it was last year in Las Vegas: the career workshop. The workshop was titled “Navigating Rough Seas” (a very relatable title) and included both table discussions about specific questions that those in sports journalism may face in their career journeys and one-on-one conversations between experienced journalists and editors and younger writers. The discussions had less of a futuristic focus as sections like the artificial intelligence panel, but I found it helpful to hear from editors about how succeeding at a current job can spark career growth. My table’s question was how to move forward within a company to a higher-ranking job, and editors underscored the importance of excelling at your current responsibilities in establishing your reputation and consistency (as one editor said, you don’t want to lead the newsroom in both home runs and strikeouts). Respectful approaches and opportunistic approaches also fit in well with this objective.
From historic newspapers to Substack websites, great sports journalism has no perfect blueprint anymore
Of the six award-winning reporters and editors selected to discuss their work on the “How we did it” panel stage, two spoke about articles they published on their own websites.
While John Canzano and Tyler Dunne established their credibility and built their network in previous roles within newsrooms, the journalism they discussed reached readers through their own websites but still packed the punch of analysis and insights typically promised by big-name newspapers and magazines. Canzano spoke about his inspirations for his columns about the demise of the Pac-12 Conference and the bullying of Washington State and Oregon State in the national media, and the importance of keeping a local scope on his wide-ranging columns. Dunne has used his website to pursue impactful longform features about NFL players and teams (one of which I wrote about in my time with the Denver Broncos), and his explanation of reporting his profile on receiver Zay Jones showed how a compassionate approach to sharing an athlete’s story can lead to extraordinary results.
Reporters and editors from well-known outlets like the Los Angeles Times and Philadelphia Inquirer also provided some valuable insights on how they stood out from the competition, but the unique stories and hustle of the self-employed reporters stood out to me in revealing another potent route in the sports journalism world.
Riker's Block 