Sports Journalism

An indispensable textbook for sports journalism students, covering all the key multimedia skills needed within the industry.
Sports journalism, once dismissed as the 'toyshop' editorial department, has grown in importance as sport has become bigger and bigger business, generating billions in revenue to those who own teams, franchises, tournaments and organisations. Millions consume their newspapers from back to front and the audience for Britain's only 24 sports news channel more than eclipses news rivals.
This book gives aspiring journalists and those reporters looking to move into sports journalism an inside track on what is needed to succeed in one of the most competitive media markets. Sports journalism is changing - the proliferation of dedicated TV channels, websites, radio stations, niche publications and, of course, newspapers offers a world of opportunity, but has also led to a change in the nature of the job.
Drawing on the personal experiences of established and recently qualified reporters, it covers the whole range of skills required by sports journalists from traditional match reporting, news gathering, feature writing and colour copy to the modern demands such as providing a live blog, snaps for a website and updating a Twitter feed even before you getting around writing your story. You might be juggling the demands of a website that craves immediate SEO-friendly content with the requirements of a newspaper - which will still want the latest and freshest take on the story with a witty, punchy and original intro.
Sport Journalism is an essential practical guide to sports journalism, focusing on the traditional key skills still required for success as a reporter but illustrating the increasing importance placed on multimedia, as print, online and broadcast journalism converge.

James Toney is the managing editor at national press agency Sportsbeat and is responsible for their award-winning NCTJ-accredited sports journalism training, based at their newsrooms in London and Manchester. He covered his seventh Olympic Games in London and has been highly commended for his journalism by Sport England, Press Gazette and the Sports Journalists' Association. He assisted drafting the National Council for the Training of Journalists sports journalism syllabus and is a visiting lecturer on the MA Sports Journalism programme at St Mary's University College in Twickenham.

1. Introduction
2. Setting context - 1948/2012 Olympics
3. Roles of the sports desk - editors, specialist
4. Prior planning preventing poor performance
5. Big Match - The evolving nature of the match report and game day story
6. How to do it - dealing with round-ups and press releases
7. Big Read - Feature writing and interviews
8. Big Opinions - Colour writing and columns
9. Big Story - newgathering, sources, contacts
10. Big Changes - We're all multimedia journalists now - working online, video and broadcast journalism
11. Work experience, getting trained and getting a job, working as a freelance
12. Sports photography
Index