Unfortunately when practising an extreme sport, aiming for perfection, we all know that one lapse of concentration or a slight miscalculation can be serious. A sad story and the tragic loss of a beautiful and talented young woman.
I have been writing about women’s sport for quite a few years now, starting with reports for local newspapers and more latterly on various websites.
I was interested to read Bev’s article and the perception that even in the local press there is a bias against women’s sport because I am not sure that this is the case. Obviously, local press and their sport publishing policies vary - for example, if the area has a professional sports team (invariably male) that team will get the main coverage - but beyond that I never had problems getting the local press to give good coverage to the girls’ and women’s teams I was writing for - indeed when I wrote the press releases and match reports for the local women’s cricket team that actually started to get bigger headlines than the men.
In my experience, getting coverage was nothing to do with bias but everything to do with the quality of writing. Yes - your local men’s teams and men’s sports start with an advantage because the local sports editor will have been dealing with them for years, but with well written, exciting, releases produced reliably week in, week out and in a form that the editor can pretty much drop straight into his pages, you can overcome that.
The key things are…
*to take lessons in writing press releases,
*produce reports for your newspaper every week,
*write in the same style that the local paper uses,
*try to get in a personal touch - build a story round a character in the team (this is especially important for a sport that is not normally covered)
*highlight forthcoming newsworthy events - and keep highlighting them. Bang away at it.
*have no shame in hyping things up a bit - if someone is on the verge of national or regional selection really push this angle.
Honestly, at local level good coverage is very possible because local papers are always desperate for well written and exciting articles… in anything. It just takes a bit of effort.
National press… that is a different matter entirely.
And yes, okay, I am a male writer - but I cannot believe that my successes in getting good coverage local women’s sport were due to my gender.
My brother volunteered to write up the local women’s football matches (home games) for the local paper and they were really grateful and used them all.
They don’t actually have many correspondents, they can’t be everywhere, and yes, there’s a bias currently in favour of men’s sports. Maybe you could organise a few people in the league to submit match reports to the paper - they might get published and create more support and if they don’t then you can start a letter writing campaign to the paper to ask why they’re not printing them! I know it’s not ideal but it could be a way to get started.
I certainly think the BBC could do with some constructive criticism over their coverage of women’s sport - would be great if we could see the women’s 6 Nations or some of the cricket (2 outstandingly successful England teams).
I have been writing about women’s sport for quite a few years now, starting with reports for local newspapers and more latterly on various websites.
I was interested to read Bev’s article and the perception that even in the local press there is a bias against women’s sport because I am not sure that this is the case. Obviously, local press and their sport publishing policies vary - for example, if the area has a professional sports team (invariably male) that team will get the main coverage - but beyond that I never had problems getting the local press to give good coverage to the girls’ and women’s teams I was writing for - indeed when I wrote the press releases and match reports for the local women’s cricket team that actually started to get bigger headlines than the men.
In my experience, getting coverage was nothing to do with bias but everything to do with the quality of writing. Yes - your local men’s teams and men’s sports start with an advantage because the local sports editor will have been dealing with them for years, but with well written, exciting, releases produced reliably week in, week out and in a form that the editor can pretty much drop straight into his pages, you can overcome that.
The key things are…
*to take lessons in writing press releases,
*produce reports for your newspaper every week,
*write in the same style that the local paper uses,
*try to get in a personal touch - build a story round a character in the team (this is especially important for a sport that is not normally covered)
*highlight forthcoming newsworthy events - and keep highlighting them. Bang away at it.
*have no shame in hyping things up a bit - if someone is on the verge of national or regional selection really push this angle.
Honestly, at local level good coverage is very possible because local papers are always desperate for well written and exciting articles… in anything. It just takes a bit of effort.
National press… that is a different matter entirely.
And yes, okay, I am a male writer - but I cannot believe that my successes in getting good coverage local women’s sport were due to my gender.
Whilst I can be as outspoken as any on the subject of the lack of media coverage in women’s sport, I do agree with ellycope. We have got to come out fighting here and take our own action, rather than just sit back and wait for reporters to notice us. That’s not going to happen.
We all know there is a huge following of women for women’s sports, with many events hitting sell-out capacity crowds. We need to highlight that, and our local matches, again and again and again, and not stop until the media sits up and pays attention.
In my club we used to have one member writing up a report of every match we played and this report was included, without fail, every week in the local paper.
I would suggest that if every women’s sports team nominates a “media expert” (along with their Chair, Club Secretary, Social Secretary and so on), whose job it is to submit reports and write-ups on their club, this will herald the beginning of change.
8 Comments
A tragic story of a true Sportsister.
Unfortunately when practising an extreme sport, aiming for perfection, we all know that one lapse of concentration or a slight miscalculation can be serious. A sad story and the tragic loss of a beautiful and talented young woman.
Re: Women, where are you?
I have been writing about women’s sport for quite a few years now, starting with reports for local newspapers and more latterly on various websites.
I was interested to read Bev’s article and the perception that even in the local press there is a bias against women’s sport because I am not sure that this is the case. Obviously, local press and their sport publishing policies vary - for example, if the area has a professional sports team (invariably male) that team will get the main coverage - but beyond that I never had problems getting the local press to give good coverage to the girls’ and women’s teams I was writing for - indeed when I wrote the press releases and match reports for the local women’s cricket team that actually started to get bigger headlines than the men.
In my experience, getting coverage was nothing to do with bias but everything to do with the quality of writing. Yes - your local men’s teams and men’s sports start with an advantage because the local sports editor will have been dealing with them for years, but with well written, exciting, releases produced reliably week in, week out and in a form that the editor can pretty much drop straight into his pages, you can overcome that.
The key things are…
*to take lessons in writing press releases,
*produce reports for your newspaper every week,
*write in the same style that the local paper uses,
*try to get in a personal touch - build a story round a character in the team (this is especially important for a sport that is not normally covered)
*highlight forthcoming newsworthy events - and keep highlighting them. Bang away at it.
*have no shame in hyping things up a bit - if someone is on the verge of national or regional selection really push this angle.
Honestly, at local level good coverage is very possible because local papers are always desperate for well written and exciting articles… in anything. It just takes a bit of effort.
National press… that is a different matter entirely.
And yes, okay, I am a male writer - but I cannot believe that my successes in getting good coverage local women’s sport were due to my gender.
Football (men’s, Sunday league) is a favourite of my local newspaper too - what’s the women’s sport coverage like in other Sportsister’s areas??
My brother volunteered to write up the local women’s football matches (home games) for the local paper and they were really grateful and used them all.
They don’t actually have many correspondents, they can’t be everywhere, and yes, there’s a bias currently in favour of men’s sports. Maybe you could organise a few people in the league to submit match reports to the paper - they might get published and create more support and if they don’t then you can start a letter writing campaign to the paper to ask why they’re not printing them! I know it’s not ideal but it could be a way to get started.
I certainly think the BBC could do with some constructive criticism over their coverage of women’s sport - would be great if we could see the women’s 6 Nations or some of the cricket (2 outstandingly successful England teams).
Re: Women, where are you?
I have been writing about women’s sport for quite a few years now, starting with reports for local newspapers and more latterly on various websites.
I was interested to read Bev’s article and the perception that even in the local press there is a bias against women’s sport because I am not sure that this is the case. Obviously, local press and their sport publishing policies vary - for example, if the area has a professional sports team (invariably male) that team will get the main coverage - but beyond that I never had problems getting the local press to give good coverage to the girls’ and women’s teams I was writing for - indeed when I wrote the press releases and match reports for the local women’s cricket team that actually started to get bigger headlines than the men.
In my experience, getting coverage was nothing to do with bias but everything to do with the quality of writing. Yes - your local men’s teams and men’s sports start with an advantage because the local sports editor will have been dealing with them for years, but with well written, exciting, releases produced reliably week in, week out and in a form that the editor can pretty much drop straight into his pages, you can overcome that.
The key things are…
*to take lessons in writing press releases,
*produce reports for your newspaper every week,
*write in the same style that the local paper uses,
*try to get in a personal touch - build a story round a character in the team (this is especially important for a sport that is not normally covered)
*highlight forthcoming newsworthy events - and keep highlighting them. Bang away at it.
*have no shame in hyping things up a bit - if someone is on the verge of national or regional selection really push this angle.
Honestly, at local level good coverage is very possible because local papers are always desperate for well written and exciting articles… in anything. It just takes a bit of effort.
National press… that is a different matter entirely.
And yes, okay, I am a male writer - but I cannot believe that my successes in getting good coverage local women’s sport were due to my gender.
Whilst I can be as outspoken as any on the subject of the lack of media coverage in women’s sport, I do agree with ellycope. We have got to come out fighting here and take our own action, rather than just sit back and wait for reporters to notice us. That’s not going to happen.
We all know there is a huge following of women for women’s sports, with many events hitting sell-out capacity crowds. We need to highlight that, and our local matches, again and again and again, and not stop until the media sits up and pays attention.
In my club we used to have one member writing up a report of every match we played and this report was included, without fail, every week in the local paper.
I would suggest that if every women’s sports team nominates a “media expert” (along with their Chair, Club Secretary, Social Secretary and so on), whose job it is to submit reports and write-ups on their club, this will herald the beginning of change.
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