Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure of seeing three prominent sports journalists discuss their current profession as well as their post college journey to their current job. All three speakers were Newhouse alumni so I knew knew that I would have the same opportunities as they did. Each speaker did a quick introduction before they opened the door to questions. Pete Thamel, class of ’99 and current journalist at Sports Illustrated spoke about how he started at the Daily Orange while taking bigger freelance jobs. He used the Newhouse and Daily Orange alumni networks to get jobs. Greg Bishop, class of ’02, kept it simple and talked about his current job at the New York Times boxing and tennis writer. Michael Cohen, class of ’13, realized that he liked writing a lot more than broadcasting and switched his major to Journalism. He now works for The Post-Standard.
After their brief introduction, they opened the floor to questions. The first question was about how they handled criticism. All three answered similarly. I think this was one of the most valuable and interesting questions because it related to people, like me, who are not interested in becoming journalists. I really liked Michael Cohen’s answer to the question. He talked about how five to ten percent of the criticism that he gets are off the wall and irrational arguments. He doesn’t respond to those. However, the rest of his criticism he reads and responds to. Cohen argued that starting a dialogue with a reader who disagrees with him is the best way to learn something new and even if you are right, it works on your persuasive skills.
Although, they focused on sports journalism, many of the lessons they taught could be applied to any profession. For example, they talked about getting better at your craft. They all gave the same advice: keep honing your skills. The more work you have, the better and more diverse your portfolio will be.
Another cool part of the lecture was hearing about some of the stories they told. Pete Thamel had just gotten back from covering the Iron Bowl and was on the field during Chris Davis’ game winning field goal return. He told us that he had actually run onto the field as he was returning the ball. Thamel was fifteen yards onto the field by the time Davis scored. Thamel then managed to get off the field as the crowd stormed the field. He then had only a small amount of time to get the article written for Sports Illustrated.
Of all of the speaker events that I attended while I was here, this was one of the coolest. It’s fun to see some big celebrity but when you have three incredibly successful Newhouse alumni, I could really see what my future may hold. Listening to how they used alumni networks and the skills that they learned in Newhouse helped me realize that I have a ton of opportunities right in front of me. I’m really glad I went and I learned a lot.