Where are the good soccer journalists?

[Mel Brennan]

Originally posted by sydtheeagle
Also remember that 99% of journalism (a fact all too often forgotten today) is about REPORTING. No one cares about your opinion or what you think...great journalists know how to present the facts in plain, good English.

Also remember that in the vast makority of popular media, this rarely happens, and that most of the time all other kinds of considerations, that have nothing to do with the facts, take precedence throughout the editing process, the article selection process, and the article placement process. Indeed, in today's media climate, you can be just as sucessfull being an "outrageous" personality with little talent/honed skillsets as you can be with "authentic" journalistic tenets as your guide, if not more so...

WORLD SOCCER is a great magazine for the global perspective (albeit from an English perspective), AFRICAN SOCCER covers the African continent (although, again, from the perspective of reporters and editors who live in London), and SOCCER AMERICA, which recently went to a true magazine format, covers world football in the States.

Whoever submitted that Glanville ws quality was correct; also flesh out your soccer experience with soccer books; I recommend Galeano's "Soccer in Sun and Shadow" and Nick Hornby's "Fever Pitch" to start with...then maybe Andy Dougan's "Dynamo: defending the honour of Kiev" as well as Freemantle Media's 7-disc DVD collection, "The History of Football," narrated by Terence Stamp (aka "kneel, before Zod"/Supreme Chancellor from Star Wars Episode I)...

[listentobobmarley]

Jeff Bradley
Soccer America
World Soccer
cnnsi.com (the soccer page is descent)

[babytiger2001]

Originally posted by sydtheeagle


One point is, WRITE. Write about anything. Don't focus on becoming a soccer writer, just write and get published. Once you've established yourself (in print) as a capable writer, got some clips together, and hopefully built a reputation then it'll be much easier to leverage yourself into writing about something that interests you. Think of it like this: you have to play in the minors before you get to the big time.

Also remember that 99% of journalism (a fact all too often forgotten today) is about REPORTING. No one cares about your opinion or what you think...great journalists know how to present the facts in plain, good English. That is why good writing about anything is what will get you into writing about something you love. Being a soccer lover (or even knowing a lot about soccer) is not as a good a qualification for getting a job as a soccer reporter as having a proven track record as a top rate reporter and writer in, say, the nursing home management sector.

Well, hope this advice is of some use. If you do want more, send me a private message. Don't want this thread to be Syd's job clinic.

We can make it "William's job clinic", instead, perhaps. I'll be glad to dish out advice, in PM's or otherwise. ;)

I would echo what Syd had to say. Having been in the business for the last 13 years, and reporting on the sport of soccer for various endeavors and publications (I'm an online journalist now, almost exclusively; I used to do it in the print medium), and what the contemporary soccer writers -- Bradley, Goff, Wagman, myself, et al-- have in common is an ability to communicate facts and just a bit of opinion in a way that is entertaining as well as informative.

Really, all one can do is to keep writing, as Syd said, on anything at all. It's really a craft that takes lots of hard work to perfect, and from my perspective, you really don't know if you're ever at that "perfect" stage, and it takes so much more effort to maintain that standard.

But as it's been said before in other contexts, and with regard to getting that first article published, particularly, the journey is more important than the destination, but staying on top of the mountain is a harder process than actually getting there, as well.

Cheers,
William

[rauld10]

Four Four Two is the greatest soccer magazine ever! I picked up one issue of Soccer America and was dissapointed because most of the information contained in the magazine can be obtained from the Internet.
All of you should check out a fairly new soccer website Cybersoccer News (http://www.cybersoccernews.com). It has good analysis of US National Teams (mens and womens) and MLS (all teams).

[houndguy]

Although I would agree that all the names listed so far are very good writers, they all have a backround in print or the traditional media.

No one metioned any strickly electronic based soccer writers like Billy Fetty (www.a-league.com) or Rich Snowden (www.soccer365.com) just to name a few.

On a personal note, I also write about soccer. I do it for a couple of websites and I do if for the love of the sport and the love of writing. If I make a few bucks at it great, but if you can combine two passions...more power to you.

I would also mention the new soccer mag 90 minutes (www.90soccer.com/index.html). First issue is free!

[usscouse]

Good……Soccer……journalist.
A real contradiction of terms here…:D

[Alepinero]

Desertfox:


is there any way that i could get a copy of this breakdown say by email or something like that?

[Dave Marino-Nachison]

In the US the best soccer writing comes from the daily newspapers. While it might be nice to see more of it, they are the ones doing the most interesting features with the most in-depth reporting -- and those are the kind that the sport really needs more of.

If GPK is still doing his thread collecting the day's soccer writing each morning, check that out... I've seen fantastic articles from all sorts of sources, from the beat reporters such as Goff and Merz et al, to general assignment types writing up their minor league teams.

One of the best American articles I've seen in years was written this season by an Atlanta paper profiling life as a Silverback. I still remember William Gildea's (Washington Post) work during WC 98 very fondly too.

If there is a weakness of the American full-time soccer press, it is feature-writing -- not to say that they're not capable but I've never figured out why they don't do more of this kind of thing. That said, Grant Wahl did some very good work during the World Cup this summer.

[houndguy]

Originally posted by Dave Marino-Nachison
In the US the best soccer writing comes from the daily newspapers. While it might be nice to see more of it, they are the ones doing the most interesting features with the most in-depth reporting -- and those are the kind that the sport really needs more of.

I agree 100%


One of the best American articles I've seen in years was written this season by an Atlanta paper profiling life as a Silverback.

Here's the link to the story (sans pictures)
www.pdlsoccer.com/ajcsilverbacks.htm