By Dennis J. Freeman
Associated Press Sports Editors Diversity Fellowship Program
Indiana University School of Journalism Dean Brad Hamm believes in the A College of One philosophy. In speaking to a group of students who are part of the Associated Press Sports Editors Diversity Fellowship Program, Hamm shared with those individuals that A College of One is basically a concept that encompasses knowing the whole of a craft instead of walking in partial ignorance.
To illustrate this point, Hamm, who spoke recently to the inaugural class of the APSE Diversity Fellowship Program at Indiana University, spoke on the importance as leaders and managers to know the circulation numbers of the publication you work for and for individuals to have a full understanding of the industry they’re in.
In the case of sports journalism that means hooking up with fellow editors, college professors or leaders in that field that can provide guidance towards a path to leadership. Understanding the full scope in the role as a leader other than assigning game stories is critical to the success of that sports director or manager. To be successful, an editor can’t have just partial knowledge of the field they’re in.
Picking up and reading material from the competition, getting a firm grasp on how advertising actually works, knowing your company’s profit margins and learning about how the latest technology can improve or impact your model as newsmakers are part of intricate nuances a leader in the sports department must be able to understand.
“You have to know profit margins,” Hamm told APSE fellows. “Times are bad. As a leader you should know your circulation numbers. If your circulation is dropping and your advertising is dropping and those kinds of things and we can look at the complexities of advertising. But at least you’re knowledgeable. You’ve created the knowledge to compete as a leader in that environment rather than just simply say circulation is down.”
Dips in circulation of publications across the country have caused many people inside news organizations to panic and fear that publications are no longer monetarily viable. That’s not the case, Hamm said. Some publications go through the practice of weighing cost of distribution in the circulated communities they serve.
If that company view that it is not profitable to serve a certain community, they often times pull the plug as a cost-cutting measure. That drop in circulation wouldn’t have necessarily come from readers abandoning ship, but through a company trying to keep a profitable margin. Hamm said a good newsroom leader have to be able to understand that process and make that determination.
“There’s a sense we are in a bad industry,” Hamm said. “This is not an industry that has been particularly affected…newspapers are still profitable. Accountants don’t sit around and write everyday about their industry collapsing. We don’t see the orthodontist say, we you wouldn’t believe how it was today. The journalists are writing endlessly. What we’ve done is to give everyone else a pass.”
To hammer his point home, Hamm compared the plight of publications to the absent concept people may have of other industries. Hamm used the World Series, the NCAA Final Four, The Oprah Winfrey Show and the New York Times as examples to back up his point.
From 1993 to 2009, the NCAA Final Four’s viewership has dropped 47 percent. Major League Baseball and its World Series have fallen off by 60 percent. Oprah aw her audience viewership cut in half, going from 12.2 million in 1992 to 6.6 million in 2009. In comparison, the New York Times only dipped 1.2 percent.
“There’s a wonderful story about how many of the publications-to save money-at a certain point say that it cost a lot to print it,” Hamm said. “It cost a lot to drive it out there. It cost a lot. You cut off that circulation. So when you hear that circulation is leaving newspapers, it is interesting to know how much of it that you left behind to be more profitable.”
Becoming an effective leader comes in many ways. Conceptualizing putting a plan of action in motion that will help your team succeed is one way. It’s important for leaders in the sports newsroom to know where he or she is leading their team, what type of stories they want to develop and put together an overall goal of what is to be accomplished. The mantle of leadership doesn’t stop there for sports editors or managers.
Leadership is vision and making bold decisions. It also calls for need to want to be a more effective leader of a sports department. Being surrounded with mentors and other leaders can help in that area as well as searching out material that can make you a better and more effective director or manager. But knowing your audience is key, Hamm said.
“As you began to think about the model that we know is changing, the audience is changing,” Hamm said. “There are very people who know less about their audience as the kind of people they are than newspapers. You can educate yourself. You have this ability to become better three months from now, six months from now, a year from now, by creating a plan in some ways and taking advantage of opportunities.”
