Photos of reporters in print/online

Early in my career, I worked at a small paper with a rule: If you ended up in a photo in the paper, you had to buy donuts for the staff. (I think it was a gentle way to make the point that you should report the news, not be in it.) Whenever I see a reporter from a major paper in print (usually in a photo of a scrum around an athlete) I think they're lucky not to have that rule.

 

At one stop, when I covered basketball, once I sat behind center court about halfway up the grandstand. Once, until the shooter let me know how many of his shots I was in the middle of. Relocated after that.

OTOH at another paper we had a cops reporter with a hearing problem, so she had to work as close as possible to the podium at newsers. Her being in the photo was inevitable.

 

I rarely, if ever, sit in the pressbox for baseball and softball games. I'm in the bleachers the majority of the time and have inadvertently been photographed a few times by our photogs during the games. Most times they can crop me out of it, but there have been a few times when it can't be done without ruining the pic.

Same goes for basketball, as I don't sit at the scorer's table if I can prevent doing so.

 

My last paper had a regular feature with a staff member writing about what we do to try to make us seem human. So my photo ran in the paper, and even my son made fun of my sweater.

 

I could see him doing that.

 

You'd bounce questions off kids that were playing? Or scrubs on the bench? If it were the former I would say hit the bricks, especially if it was an important time in the game. Same KY, I usually sit in the stands at baseball and softball games. A co-worker once got in a wrestling photo where he was sitting cross-legged right down by the mat. It was more funny than anything else

 

We had a photog turn in a photo he took in a dance studio, and you could see his reflection in the mirror behind the girls.

 

Not formal interview questions. I've only done that three times that I can recall. Once was an all-star game where our local guys were finished playing and it was the last inning. The other two were blowouts and the kids were out of the game. All three times it was because the games were running long and time was becoming a factor.

I was talking more "Hey, what happened on that weird play?" or "What did he throw you there?" Or "What's this guy's pitch count at?" type questions.
Sometimes I'm even a sympathetic ear when the coach wants to vent about his team loud enough for them to hear.

The in-game questions are all informational stuff I can file away for reference purposes and ask about later if need be. I'm not obnoxious and I've never been asked to hit the bricks. If a coach ever told me to do that, I'd consider it a great professional embarrassment. I view my presence there as a courtesy extended by the coach and I'm not going to piss that away by being annoying.

 

That sounds a little too cozy.

 

It's usually a kid doing something stupid and the coach ranting about it for a minute. Listen and ask the right questions in that brief conversation, and you can learn a lot about the dynamics of the team, shortcomings or strengths of players, even certain things about the game itself.
Sitting in the dugout is basically embedding yourself with the team.
Just like in any setting, there are certain codes of conduct to observe. Never cheer, obviously, which should go without saying. Be respectful and understand that you're a guest in their workplace. Don't distract them from their job of coaching or playing the game. Be mindful of where you're standing or sitting, and don't get in the way of coaches giving signs (which occasionally happens if you're shooting pictures). Understand that you will hear things that are wonderful for background information, but in no way suitable for print, and that not everything you hear needs to go into print. Also understand that you will hear things that you can stash away that might be hooks for stories down the road.
As long as you act professionally, like you would in any other setting, and don't screw it up by being a jackass, the benefits far outweigh the negatives.

 

A regular Ken Rosenthal.

 

Hey Batman,

So you are in the dugout and hear that the star pitcher isn't hurt like the coach said but was suspended for having a wild party where the cops were called.

What do you do?