John Bednarowski: Sports Editor for the Marietta Daily Journal

This past Friday (August 30), another great speaker joined our sports reporting class. John Bednarowski, sports editor for the Marietta Daily Journal, provided us with priceless advice about sports reporting. He showed us a great way to keep detailed statistics while watching a game and gave each of us recommendations for story angles and interview questions to use in our player/coach profile assignments.

Bednarowski is originally from Ohio, but attended school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He began as a history and political science major, but quickly knew it was not for him. He started writing a column about UAB baseball and eventually became the sports editor for the school’s paper, “The Kaleidoscope”.

Bednarowski taught us the two things that will inevitably make us better writers: to keep writing and to read everything we can. He listed numerous writers whose work he reads whenever he can and encouraged us to do the same. Those include Kent Babb of The Washington Post, Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman, Tommy Deas of The Tuscaloosa News, and many other talented journalists.

Bednarowski allowed us a glimpse into the MDJ newsroom when he answered questions about how he orchestrated things. Bednarwoski doesn’t spend much time on the field anymore, but he has three writers on his personal staff, around seven on staff for the MDJ and partner papers, and 14 correspondents. If a Friday night game is in Cobb or Cherokee county, or if a Cobb or Cherokee team is playing in the metro-Atlanta area, someone from Bednarowski’s team will be there. The deadline for writers is at 11:15pm, an easy feat by some of his writers who can turnaround a story in as little as 14 minutes.

In conclusion, Bednarowski’s visit was extremely helpful and entertaining as well. Using his advice will undoubtedly make me a more accurate and efficient reporter.