On Tuesday, March 16th, I had the pleasure and opportunity to sit down with the University of Memphis Tigers beat writer Dan Wolken. He gives me some insight on what it takes to be a sucessful beat writer as well a few tips on how to have longevity in this business. I also have a snippet of one of my favorite quotes from the interview...check it out!!
Interview with Dan Wolken
Q: When did you begin writing for the CA?
A: I met the former sports editor for the CA, Gary Robinson, at dinner and this was like in the summer of 2003. It had came up that I was from Hot Springs, Arkansas, and as you know it’s fairly close to Memphis. So we just kept in touch over the years via email and we would always talk and it came up that there was an opening for this job and I asked that I be considered for the job, and he said I have a list of candidates and you’re already on the list. So I sent him my work and he brought me in for an interview and I was hired.
Q: So when did you become the Tigers’ beat writer?
A: Well that’s the job they hired me for. This was in 2006. Gary Parrish had this job before me, but then he got a job for CBS. So that left this job open, and there were other people that already worked for the CA that wanted this job, but I got it instead.
Q: Be honest. Do you feel like this is the best job you’ve had so far? Like, how passionate are you in covering the Tigers?
A: Yes, this is the best job I’ve had so far. I like the work. Ionly worked at two newspapers as a full-time employee. I worked at the Charlotte Observer as an intern, and at a New Orleans newspaper as an intern, and at Riverside Press Enterprise in California. So this was a big step up for me in terms of coming from Colorado Springs, and it is definitely the best job I have had.
Q: In your opinion, can you tell me what it takes to become a successful beat writer?
A: You have to be flexible, and you have to be willing to work all the time. In other words, if you’re looking for an 8 to 5 job, then this is not for you, because news happens at different times, different days, and different hours. You also have to be good at building relationships because most of the news you get will be because you have a relationship with somebody that trusts you, and that knows you. So you have to be visible, you have to be respected, in terms of being professional. So when you cover a beat, the main thing is to break as much news as possible, and to be the authority figure on your beat, and you have to spend a lot of time building the base of knowledge on what type of beat you’re covering.
Q: As the Memphis Tigers’ beat writer, what do you think or feel you bring to the table as far as giving the audience what they want?
A: Well, everyone comes at it at a different viewpoint, everyone has a different style. I think people enjoy my work because it’s balanced, timely, it’s analytical, and my goal is to take the readers where they can’t go. In other words, I can go places they can’t go because I have access. My whole goal is to take them inside to where I am and get them access to information that they can’t normally get on their own.
Q: Now that you have your own radio show on AM790, how has life changed for you?
A: I don’t know if my life’s changed, but I do know that my schedule has changed. I used to do a little more work in the mornings, now I spend the mornings preparing for the show, and more time in the evenings doing my work. So it’s just three more hours preparing for the show, when I could be doing something else for three hours. So it all boils down to time management, that’s all.
Q: Let’s switch gears a bit. March Madness is here and we all know what that means. So will you be cheering for Coach Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats or no?
A: I won’t be cheering for them. Actually, I won’t be cheering for anyone, that’s not my job to root for a particular team. Mainly, if you’re in this business, you root for the best story. The best stories will be the upsets, the little guys. Obviously, if Kentucky makes it to the Final Four, it would be interesting to see the story or reactions from the people around here, and that’s a story in itself. But I don’t really get emotionally involved in any particular games, or nothing like that.
Q: So let’s stay with that topic: Coach Cal and him leaving Memphis for Kentucky. What was your take on that situation?
A: It was a complex time in the history of the program. There were a lot of different things going on, and I don’t think it was handled particularly well by all parties involved. John Calipari didn’t handle it as well as he should have. R.C. Johnson made a lot of mistakes. I thought Kentucky got duped in terms of not knowing what was going on here in Memphis with the violations. I thought the whole saga kind of revealed a lot of what’s wrong with college sports in a lot of ways. On the other hand it highlighted what we already know, that this is a big business, and that the NCAA is going to do nothing to harm its best brand names. I thought that some of the stuff Calipari did was shameless, I thought R.C Johnson got played throughout the whole process, and I think that ultimately the way things work out, people will move on, and the bitterness will end. In all honesty, it is not flattering to all parties that were involved.
Q: Ok, last question. As far as blogs go, what advice could you give someone who wants to cover a specific beat like you do?
A: At this point in time, at this day in age, you have to understand multiple platforms media. It used to be, if you worked at a newspaper you were just a newspaper writer. Now, that’s not necessarily the case because now you have to do your blog, Twitter, video stuff, at some places you have to take pictures and load videos of your interview to your Web site. You have to learn all this stuff because the newspaper field is shrinking and probably not going to get better, it’s probably going to stay the same get smaller. But the opportunities in terms of multimedia and the Internet are increasing, so the better handle you have on that aspect of it, the more opportunities you have for success. Also, the way blogs work, anyone can be a journalist, so it’s just a matter of finding your niche and having an audience. So we’ve seen successful stories of people who’ve started from scratch because they found an audience. So that’s the best advice I can give you other than to work hard, watch and listen.
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