Should a Sports Editor write or manage?

I skimmed the first page, and echo what Moddy and others have said....

Depends on the size of the department. Sometimes, the SE has no choice but to write. Stuff's got to get covered and if there's no one else to do it, guess what? The SE is writing.

I also agree that cherry-picking is terrible. Should never, ever happen.

 

The "depends on the situation" line is 100 percent spot-on.
I work at a 30K, and our SE has a handful of beats, mostly minor sports. Writes a ton of copy, though, also pounding out various notes packages.

In a perfect world, an SE would only manage and design.

Raise your hand if you work in a perfect world.

 

I suck. (eom)

 

I've worked with SEs that were writers, ones that were editors and ones that were mostly managers. It really depends on the person's strengths and the size of the staff.

Obviously, if you are at a small daily or non-daily, everyone has to do everything: write, edit, layout, photos, manage, etc.

At the metro dailies, I would think there is more than enough to do in the managing department alone. Although a few, usually who have been a writer or columnist for many years, still find time to write occasionally. I have no problem with that, either.

I worked with one SE who was a terrific writer, but didn't care much for the management part. Staff work schedules often didn't get posted in advance and there was a certain amount of organizational chaos that continued while he chased down sources for stories (which were usually pretty good). If that's the case, maybe deligating some responsibilities wouldn't be a bad idea.

But, overall, there are good SEs who fall into any of the above categories.

 

Good question, good thread.

I look at it this way. An SE can write, he can work desk, he can be the department administrator. He can only do two of those well, and here's the part which I don't understand -- where is it that a sports editor doesn't have to run his department? To me, it's a given that this is one of the two things.

I've had to adjust that list to four things, because now he can also take charge of the online enterprise from sports. I still think you can only do two of those four well, especially at a newspaper of any size.

 

Shottie, that's an interesting idea and while I've never been an SE so I probably shouldn't comment, it makes a lot of sense.
My SE writes and runs the department and does a good job of both.

 

I am a writing SE at a 30K to the point where I have our Division I beat. We have a four-person full-time staff.

It's the way the job has been defined here as long as anyone can remember, moreover, it's the way management at my shop wants the job defined.

They want the SE out there ... in the know, in the community, not behind a desk. When I interviewed several years ago, they wanted the SE to be the whole package, including the expectation of being the best writer/reporter. It's just the way its done here, it appealed to me, and I've really enjoyed it. It hasn't hurt the section either, we've won multiple awards, including APSE, both in my time in the job and when my predecessors were running the show.

Can it be a challenge to juggle both, especially with travel? Sometimes, but it's not as bad one might think. The staff at my place is great, largely self-reliant, and works very hard. The editors on the universal desk are good, which helps a lot.

The arrangement wouldn't work if I were, or was expected to be, a micro-manager. To make it work, you have to have and command trust from the staff.

Preparation and anticipation, especially if I know I'll be out for a few days, is crucial. Create a plan of action for the staff to follow, try to anticipate road blocks that could happen so they have options, and go from there. If you do it right (I don't always, but I always try), you juggle both reporting and management responsibilities.

Frankly, I don't know what I'd do all day if I were a stay-in-the-office manager, I've been doing it this way for so long.

As for cherry-picking, if I do something outside of my beat, it's almost without exception as a secondary writer or columnist.

We have a NFL team nearby, and I've never covered an assignment in place of our regular beat writer unless he didn't intend to go, or, unless it was economically sensible for me to do it (I covered one game last year in his place because I was 90 miles away the day before for a game on my regular beat). Same goes for our annual events (auto racing) and preps, which is huge in our area.

It is, admittedly, an unusual role that I have, perhaps old-fashioned, but I wouldn't want it any other way. And as others have mentioned, what works here, would not work at other shops, etc.

 

I'm SE at a 40k. When I had seven full-timers, I just managed the department, read copy and wrote columns because I had time. Now that I'm down to four writers, I cover a couple of beats, manage the department, read copy and have quit writing columns because I don't have time.

 

I'm the SE at a 16, 17K daily with a staff of two others.

I primarily handle all the layout and have two beats. I am responsible for two of our four blogs, and also update the Web site and handle other multimedia entities which we're getting into. In order to get stuff covered the way it should be, I have to write. There's no other way around it, though if we were staffed as we should be - and used to be - then I would doubt I'd be writing.

My previous SEs did not write. They just ran the department and managed. What's funny is that at my previous 10K paper, our SE didn't write but maybe once or twice every few months ... and that's because our staff was a lot bigger than the paper I'm at now.

 

Sports editors should write. They also should not have to go to the 10 a.m. meetings. Sports is a different animal and sports editors should not be forced to turn into corporate kissass fucks. Period.

 

Well, we know that wasn't always the case there.