Dan Wetzel on column writing

[Alma]

http://apsportseditors.org/newsletter/writer-qa-dan-wetzel-on-the-art-of-column-writing/

It's a good talk on some of Wetzel's work, including the Brady column. But I'll quote the answer I like best (mostly because I agree 1000%):

<i>Here’s what I would tell most reporters. Stop Tweeting. Stop Tweeting and start paying attention to the game and all that’s going on. All everyone does in the press box now is sit up there and Tweet play-by-play. Stop Tweeting. Nobody wants all that. There are people who Tweet play-by-play of the Super Bowl. There are 150 million people watching the game. Who is not watching that game and instead following you and your Twitter account and needs to know right away that Frank Gore just ran 4 yards off tackle? So that would be my first advice and my biggest criticism today.

Most sports journalists do a tremendous job. They really do. I’m not down on anyone. I don’t have it figured out. But the one thing I do see is stop wasting your time on Twitter. Spend more time thinking about what people want to read. And yeah your Twitter feed gives you some of that instant feedback. But Tweeting during the game takes away your focus. Who cares? Does Twitter pay you? I’ve never gotten a penny from them. If anyone has, let me know. They don’t pay me anything.</i>

 

[BrianGriffin]

The only way I'd modify what he says is "stop tweeting poorly." If you are tweeting a play by play, you're wasting your time. If you are making interesting, funny and conversation-inspiring (as opposed to provoking) comments, than you aren't wasting time.

Use Twitter wisely.

 

[Knighthawk]

The only way I'd modify what he says is "stop tweeting poorly." If you are tweeting a play by play, you're wasting your time. If you are making interesting, funny and conversation-inspiring (as opposed to provoking) comments, than you aren't wasting time.

Use Twitter wisely.

Yep. Tweet things that the fans can't see on TV or get from their cell phones. Add information to the discussion.

 

[playthrough]

Or, again, just don't tweet. The lasting product of your work from covering a ballgame is your story. What do you thumb back through in a week or a month or six months -- your story or your best in-game tweets?

 

[BrianGriffin]

playthrough, I think tweeting is a tool to build audience. Newspapers had a monopoly on the audience in generations passed. Not any more. Smart use of social media is to compel people to consume your work. The best way to do that is by having credible things to say.

Like it or not, readers have a myriad of options out there to find information. This is especially true if you cover things important enough to be shown on TV.

So there's a line you walk. I always have twitter on while covering games and I engage. But twitter is secondary and merely a tool, but one you are wise to use and wiser to use well.

 

[Songbird]

Quibble: no "a" before and "of" after myriad.

Readers have myriad options.

Back to your regularly scheduled conversation.

 

[BrianGriffin]

Call me "Wordy" McGee.

 

[Songbird]

Related to Tits?

 

[LongTimeListener]

It would be an interesting experiment for a well-known columnist -- maybe Wetzel -- to go through a year in three modes:

1) Tweet as normal
2) Do not tweet from any event you're covering
3) Do not tweet at all

... and study the impact on readership. Of course that could be measured many ways too, but at this point it would be almost impossible to take the side that tweeting pays off in a business sense.

It's almost like Twitter has returned us to the days of print media, when we just assumed people were reading (news and ads) because we published.

 

[imjustagirl]

Quibble: no "a" before and "of" after myriad.

Readers have myriad options.

Back to your regularly scheduled conversation.

False.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/myriad

 

[Songbird]

There are a myriad of ways.

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/myriad?page=all

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/20133/what-is-the-correct-usage-of-myriad

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/myriad

Wetzel won't be tweeting any of those examples.

 

[Versatile]

I avoid using "myriad" or "decimated" in my own writing because of their precise numerical origins. But modern definitions have flexed enough to allow "myriad" to be used casually and as a noun. Either be a full-on usage purist or shut up about it.

 

[BrianGriffin]

The take-away: when covering games, don't send out (a) myriad (of) tweets.

 

[93Devil]

If you are not watching the game on TV, isn't there a better way to follow the action, like a game cast, than looking at tweets?

Now if you are tweeting "trainer said, Gore broke his leg," that is one thing, but "TD 49ERS, Montana to Rice" is just redundant because of all the locations you can see it.

 

[Songbird]

MT: The take-away: when covering games, don't send out (a) myriad (of) tweets.

 

[Cousin Jeffrey]

I agree with his main point but Twitter is incredibly useful when you miss something and/or when journalists and fans watching home saw/ heard something you didn't. Also, I use Twitter to try out lines and jokes. I use them all the time. My problem is with journalists who break stuff on Twitter before writing it _ Twitter doesn't pay you like Wetzel said _ and the guys who use Twitter as ego strokes, be it RTing compliments or spoiling a live event like a draft.

 

[Versatile]

I agree with his main point but Twitter is incredibly useful when you miss something and/or when journalists and fans watching home saw/ heard something you didn't. Also, I use Twitter to try out lines and jokes. I use them all the time. My problem is with journalists who break stuff on Twitter before writing it _ Twitter doesn't pay you like Wetzel said _ and the guys who use Twitter as ego strokes, be it RTing compliments or spoiling a live event like a draft.

Are you a comedian?

 

[JackReacher]

I agree with his main point but Twitter is incredibly useful when you miss something and/or when journalists and fans watching home saw/ heard something you didn't. Also, I use Twitter to try out lines and jokes. I use them all the time. My problem is with journalists who break stuff on Twitter before writing it _ Twitter doesn't pay you like Wetzel said _ and the guys who use Twitter as ego strokes, be it RTing compliments or spoiling a live event like a draft.

You got jokes, huh?

 

[WriteThinking]

I agree with Wetzel's sentiments, but he misses one key point.

Most reporters tweet because they're told by their bosses that they have to.

Wetzel probably is not, and gets free reign to handle his work, and the emphasis of it, how ever he wants.

 

[H.L. Mencken]

Wetzel's point is simply that there is tweeting and there is TWEETING. Any boss who insists a beat writer tweet PBP is a clown, and Wetzel is speaking to that boss as much as young reporter/writer types. Wetzel tweets regularly, even during big events, just not every twenty seconds.

If you want to be seen as an intellectual like Wetzel, tweet like one, not a spastic stenographer. People don't follow Wetzel on Twitter because he's great at Twitter, they do it because of his body of work.