Jul

3

Job Opening: VP Public Relations-MSG Sports

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Madison Sqare Gardens Communications is looking for a VP of Public Relations. If you think you have the necessary qualifications and want to apply, please visit this website.

Description: The Vice President Public Relations, MSG Sports oversees all of MSG Sports business public relations activity relating to the trade, business, consumer media, internal communications and industry relations. Will work closely with all divisions to ensure integrated activities and communication. Will work closely with MSG Sports management to create targeted, impactful public relations plans that meet short and long term business objectives, support critical marketing partnerships, and powerfully deliver key messages to target audiences. Will conduct on-going, proactive media outreach that specifically supports sports business initiatives and assists sales and marketing efforts. The VP will focus on developing and strengthening key trade, business and consumer relationships for both public relations and MSG Sports executives that result in more positive coverage of MSG Sports news. Responsible for interfacing with all MSG Sports divisions to garner publicity on business and marketing programs to help divisions achieve financial and business goals.

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Jul

2

SportsCenter’s “My Wish” returns

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“My Wish” returns on SportsCenter for a fourth straight year, kicking off on July 5. Over a span of five days, SportsCenter will feature a segment on a wish granted by a famous athlete. To see what I’m talking about, you can view the feature segments from last year at ESPN.com.

Similar to previous years, the SportsCenter segment will feature the story behind the wish, interviews with the youngsters and their families and a behind-the-scenes look at the wish fulfilled, including the interaction between each child and his or her favorite athlete.

So why am I reminding you about this segment? If you think you might be interested in a career in community relations, these segments are for you. The CR coordinator and/or manager handle these types of requests for teams, hosting meet and greets after practices and games typically with sick individuals and military personnel. The most rewarding part is seeing the kid’s face light up when they meet their idol for the first time. Community relations departments do more than just deal with requests, but “My Wish” can offer some insight into a portion of their responsibilities for any of you who may be interested.

Jun

23

Job Opening: FC Dallas Media Relations Intern

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FC Dallas is looking for a wide-ranging set of interns. The one of specific interest to readers of this blog would be the public relations/media relations internship opening. For more info on the other internships available or to apply for the media relations internship, please visit this website.

The public relations internship is ideal for a college student with an interest in public relations and a knowledge of FC Dallas and Major League Soccer.

Job Duties:
• Assist with FCD Game Day Operations
• Includes Game notes, press box set up, credential process
• Assist media with statistical questions, player interview requests, etc.
• Asssist in writing Press Releases / Develop story lines / Blog posts
• Assist in creating Game Day Roster Handout and other publications FCD Hoops Nation, Enews, PHP Guide, Freekick, etc.
• Assist in coverage of FCD Reserve Team and FCD Youth System / games at PHP
• Assist with providing stories and content for FCD.net. FCD Blog, PHP.com
• Attend and observe FC Dallas practices
• May involve taking photos and shooting video

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Jun

22

Book Review: Baseball and the Media

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George Castle has covered baseball in Chicago for decades and decided to finally write a book about the state of affairs. His book entitled Baseball and the Media covers a variety of issues concerning baseball and the journalists who cover the sport. Chapters range from “The Baseball Beat Writer” to “LaTroy and Carl as Jekyll and Hyde” to “No-shows in the Press Box and Clubhouse” to “Old versus New Media.” I wouldn’t say that this is a must-read book for someone interested in sports PR, but if you want to work for a baseball team in the PR department (especially a Chicago team) than you actually must read this book.

After the jump, you can read a few excerpts from the book that related to sports public relations.

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Jun

19

Job Opening: Milwaukee Brewers Media Relations Intern

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The Milwaukee Brewers are looking for a media relations intern for Fall 2009. If you think you fit their qualifications and would like to apply, please visit this website.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
The internship will begin in late August and last through the conclusion of the Fall Semester. Hours of the internship will vary depending on the team schedule. The intern will assist with various office tasks on game days and non-game days, including:

  • Compiling daily news clips
  • Monitoring Brewers talk on various message boards and blogs and reporting back to team executives
  • Answering fan e-mail and regular fan pack requests
  • Assisting with production and distribution of game day notes, stat packs and media credentials
  • Compiling stats and editing the postseason media guide
  • Helping organize various press conferences and media availabilities
  • Writing projects for Brewers publications including the GameDay Program, Spring Training Program and Media Guide

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Jun

18

Tony La Russa takes on Twitter

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St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa took on Twitter, filing a lawsuit claiming that the social networking site did not remove the fake account of someone impersonating him.

One of the downsides to Twitter, coming from a PR perspective, is that users are free to sign up for usernames without showing proof of who they actually are. This feature can become problematic when fans impersonate celebrities, allowing them to affect the individual’s image.

Athletes and other celebrities have handled fake accounts in different ways. Kathleen Hessert of Sports Media Challenge encouraged Shaquille O’Neal to simply create his own account after learning of the imposter account and Shaq now has over 1.2 million followers.

In La Russa’s case, he opted to take legal action and I think a lot of people will follow this closely to see how it plays out. There have been claims that a settlement had been reached, but Twitter’s co-founder Biz Stone says that it’s not true (as of June 8th). Publications including PC World and Sports Illustrated (via the AP) believe that the law is not on La Russa’s side.

The Eye on Sports Media blog points out that athletes need to proactively go out and create their own accounts on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to prevent something like this from even happening. It’s not that athletes need to use and update these pages, but they need to “own” them so no one else can distort and harm their image.

How have these networking sites responded after the lawsuit? Twitter announced a new feature in a beta version called “Verified Account” that will place a badge on profiles of celebrities (and the like) who have been confirmed as the real person. Twitter isn’t the only site dealing with issues over identity — the New York Times looks at how Facebook is handling imposters.

Jun

17

Blogs with Balls event deemed a success

Filed Under Sports Media | 3 Comments 

Those in attendance deemed the first “Blogs with Balls” conference a success and it comes as no surprise that these sports bloggers wrote about the event, providing us with plenty of recaps on what went down and what exactly they talked about.

HHR Media Group and RxSN announce today “Blogs with Balls,” a regional social sports blogger and new media gathering featuring speakers and panelists specifically focused on sports fans, writers, sites, teams, athletes and companies.  The event will take place on June 13, 2009 in New York City and will be the first in a series of regional gatherings centered on the ability of these groups to maximize new media outlets for promotion and advancement.

To view what was said about the conference on Twitter, you can view the feed for #BwB and #BlogswithBalls.

Neil Best, who runs the Watchdog blog for Newsday, was in attendance and noted how it brought together sport blogging royalty. Fang’s Bites has a great breakdown on what was discussed in the various panels throughout the day.

Panel #1 - The Future of Sports Media with Jim DeLorenzo of Octagon, Richard Ting of R/GA Media Group, Christopher Russo (not that one) of Fantasy Sports Ventures and Kathleen Hessert of Sports Media Challenge.

This was a fascinating panel. The personalities all discussed those athletes who have embraced social media like Twitter have found the network to be a great tool to get their messages across. Kathleen Hessert discussed how Shaquille O’Neal, instead of going after a fake Shaq on Twitter, just signed on, then began Tweeting and then squashed the imposter. Richard Ting discussed how the Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard uses social media to reach his fans. Overall, this was the best panel of the first part of the day.

There has yet to be an announcement about when the next regional event will be held, but I think it’s safe to say that there will certainly be more after its successful showing. Should there be a Blogs with Balls event closer to Detroit, I’ll try to attend because I think sports PR practitioners need to know how to interact with sports bloggers. You may work for a very popular team that has a full press box every game and tons of media coverage nearly year-round. Even so, there will be plenty of bloggers writing about your team and it would be helpful to understand where they are coming from and how you can create a healthy, positive relationship with the key bloggers covering your team. And if you work for a team that struggles to get coverage and fill the press box, you really need to know how to reach out to bloggers.

Did any of the SPRB readers attend the event? What do you think someone working in the sports PR field could take away from Blogs with Balls?

Jun

16

Job Opening: Philadelphia Union Manager of Communications

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The Philadelphia Union, a team in the MLS, is looking to hire a manager of communications. For more information or to apply, please visit this website.

SUMMARY

The Manager of Communications is responsible for aiding in the development and execution of a comprehensive, integrated and uniform communication strategy and direction for Philadelphia Union. The Manager of Communications, with direction from the Vice President of Communications, will craft and manage collaborative outreach strategies with Philadelphia Union’s growing register of corporate and government partners, and craft and oversee effective, integrated organizational communication strategies.

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Jun

15

What do you want to see?

Filed Under Blog | 5 Comments 

As many of you know, I intern with the Detroit Red Wings and my team lost in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals on Friday. Today the team will clean out their lockers and participate in the post-season signing before heading their different ways for the summer. Why do you care? I will now have more time to dedicate to this blog since I don’t intern at the rink during the offseason. Work kept my life pretty hectic, particularly over the last month when I started traveling for the road games so I hope to now pick up the slack.

This leads me into a question for the SPRB readers out there: What do you want to see on SPRB this summer? Please feel free to answer my question by leaving a comment on this post.

I plan on picking up the number of interviews posted to this blog (hopefully). Outside of the informational interviews with professionals in the industry, I’m open to your guys’ comments. Do you want more tips about trying to get an internship or job? Tips on how to write a release? More coverage of sports PR incidents? Or more posts on sports news from a PR slant? I’m obviously going to try to hit a variety of areas throughout the summer, but I wanted to see if there was a specific area or two of particular interest to the great readers of SPRB.

Thanks!

Jun

11

NBA fines LeBron James for media snub

Filed Under Sports Media | 2 Comments 

Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James refused to speak with the media after the Orlando Magic eliminated his team in a closely contested Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals. He also chose not to shake hands with Magic’s Dwight Howard, but that’s a different issue. NBA commissioner David Stern fined James $25,000 almost a week after he failed to show up at the post-game press conference or in the interview room.

My two cents: If LeBron didn’t want to shake hands with Dwight Howard and other Magic players, well, that doesn’t make him an ax murderer. Not everybody shakes hands and not doing it has nothing to do with poor sportsmanship. We’re not talking about a CYO basketball championship involving sixth-graders, after all. …

But shame on the King for not going to the interview room. He has a responsibility to take questions, and not just because he’s the recently-crowned MVP. Win or lose, it’s part of his job. And that means right after the game, by the way, not the next day up in Cleveland.

What a nightmare that had to be for the PR staff. It’s understandable that players wouldn’t want to talk after a devastating loss like that. We all get it. But talking to the media is part of an athlete’s duties and when the star player is unavailable for a series deciding game, it causes some problems for the reporters trying to cover it. That’s why leagues have rules about when players have to be available after a game — members of the media need to get quotes for their articles and are usually rushing trying to hit deadline as it is. A delay in availability or the lack of media availability from one of the NBA’s premiere players (and regular season MVP) really makes it difficult for reporters just trying to do their job.

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