Sports deskers with no sportswriting experience?

I think, and this is coming from someone who has done news and sports, that many news editors don't consider sports writers reporters. I've had many engaging debates with news and sports editors. I have yet had one to show me a sports story that doesn't have who, what, when, where, why and how in it. The writing style is different but the elements are still there.

 

I've written and edited on the news and sports sides, and there's a definite difference in the desks: Far fewer pure news copy editors have been reporters, while many (most?) sports copy editors have been reporters at some point. That has created a larger divide between writers and editors in news, because they don't really relate to each other.

 

I've often chuckled that you see guys in news talking a lot about sports and sports guys talking a lot about news.

 

Fixed for these trying, crying times. :'(

 

I've known both, and I've known very competent people who've done it both ways. Little to no writing experience, or lots of it.

I personally think it helps to have written. But it's not an absolute.

 

The Return of the One-Trick Pony.

Amusing for an opening act, but it'll never headline.

 

Why don't you just PM me with a big wet one, shotzi?

I'm not going to stop posting until I reach your 25K level, no matter what you say.

And I'd rather be a one-trick pony than a multiple-tricks Mrs. Shotglass.

 

Hey, as long as you have one more post that doesn't deal with the dying industry, I've done my job.

 

Still hoping for my first post on the thriving industry though. Either I'll be waiting a long time or this board was started 15 years too late.

 

I was a sports editor at the start of my career (smaller paper) and now I have a beat at a larger paper. My days editing helped as far as what I write now. What i find too often is editors lack common sense ... such as, don't giggle like a school girl with your fellow copy editors if someone uses a wrong synonym. And if someone makes a flub, get your butt out of the chair and mention it to them quietly and subtly. Or send them a message about it. But make sure you speak to the writer, as opposed to your copy editing mates. Also be careful what you're saying underneath your breath ... it's amazing what you can hear from across the room. As a writer, if some cynical copy editor is bashing every reporter under the sun, I assume he's bashing me when my back is turned, as well.