We’re back with our #20Questions series and this time Jay Skurski of the Buffalo News was kind enough to chat with us about how he got his start, how it feels to be a local person who covers the teams and most importantly – hard g or soft g in ‘gif’? All in all, it’s another great read and another opportunity to see the work that goes into what we read or see on our screens. Enjoy.
1. Were you a sports fan growing up and if so, what were your teams?
I was a huge sports fan growing up. Being from Buffalo, it started with the Bills and Sabres. I remember crying when the Sabres traded Lindy Ruff to the Rangers. Looking back at it, that was probably an overreaction on my part. Disappointment is part of being a Buffalo sports fan, though, right? Alex Mogilny’s first game, when he scored on his first shift, is a much happier early Sabres memory.
I didn’t go to many Bills games as a kid, so I guess my first real memory of watching them would be Wide Right.
Outside of the Bills and Sabres, I liked Syracuse’s teams and Duke basketball. Christian Laettner’s “The Shot” is one I’ll always remember where I was.
I sort of bounced between baseball teams. I was a front runner for the Blue Jays during their World Series days, then loved Ken Griffey Jr., so migrated over to the Mariners. After he got traded, I was without a team for a while, but fell in love with Fenway Park on my first trip there to see a Yankees-Red Sox game and have been hooked on the Sox ever since.
2. When did you decide you wanted to work in journalism?
While I was at St. Francis High School. Originally, I wanted to pursue TV broadcasting, and did an internship at Ch. 4 when I was in high school. I was one of the first two students from St. Francis to be chosen for that, which I remember being very proud of.
3. What do you enjoy doing outside of your “day job”? Any hobbies?
Not surprisingly, they involve sports. I’m an avid golfer. That’s probably my biggest hobby, and one of my favorite things to do with my dad, who taught me the sport.
I also play rec league basketball and pickup whenever I can. In the summers, I do the whole slow-pitch softball thing with the same group of guys for the past 10 years or so.
Summers in Buffalo are pretty awesome, but short, so anything outside in those months is a must.
My wife and I have a 2-year-old son, so our free time is pretty much taken up with him, but when we do have date nights, we love trying new restaurants.
4. Hard G or soft for ‘gif’?
Hard. I understand the creator of them tells me I’m wrong. But if I’m wrong, I don’t want to be right.
It also wouldn’t be the first time I’ve pronounced a word wrong, though. My wife particularly gets a chuckle whenever I say “closet.” My response is that I have to spell the words right, not say them.
5. What experiences do you find the most valuable in that time at USF?
It’s kind of a weird one. I had the idea in my head that I might minor in business. So my sophomore year, I took a class in basic marketing. It was the only ‘D’ I ever got in college. It helped me realize, though, what I wanted to do. I knew I had an interest in journalism, and taking that marketing class made me narrow my focus on what I really liked, and what I was good at.
6. What made you decide on Mass Communication as a major?
I was set on mass communication for a major going into college, but as I mentioned above, thought that would be with an emphasis on broadcasting. I started to realize, though, that jobs are incredibly tough to come by on that side of things, and doing it in Buffalo, which was my goal, might not happen. So I slowly made my way over to the print side of journalism. I had a professor, Rick Wilber, who really encouraged me and helped me realize that I could make a career out of writing about sports. Just typing that makes me realize how lucky I am. It’s a pretty damn cool job, even though my mom still laughs about how she had to beg me to write my essays in high school, and now I write for a living.
7. What were your influences growing up?
Probably Rick Jeanneret would be one of the biggest. I remember turning the TV down and making my parents listen to me “call the game.” Play by play is probably the first thing I can remember wanting to do.
As far as people, my parents, of course, and my grandfather on my mom’s side. He was one of my biggest supporters, and always pushed me to better myself.
8. What would you say your biggest challenge is in today’s sports media landscape?
Allow me to answer this a slightly different way and not restrict it to just sports media. Unquestionably, the biggest challenge facing newspapers in particular is convincing an entire generation of people that subscribing to the print product is worthwhile.
I believe that many young people still value the work and journalism provided by The Buffalo News, but are accustomed to getting their “news” for free. Maybe that’s from other sources, or maybe they just got used to reading the paper online for free – which is probably the biggest blunder newspapers ever made – and don’t feel like they should have to pay for in now.
Our digital numbers grow every year, but it’s the print product that pays the bills, and as long as that is true, it’s the biggest challenge that The Buffalo News and every other newspaper in the country faces.
From a sports media standpoint, giving people compelling stories to read – stories and/or analysis that they feel is necessary – on a daily basis is probably the biggest challenge. It’s a crowded marketplace out there, between both professional journalists and “bloggers,” for lack of a better term, who cover the same things we do, often times very well.
Any journalist, and particularly sportswriters, should be mindful of that. It should motivate them every day.
9. As someone that grew up in the area – is it hard covering the local teams?
Honestly, no. My job doesn’t change whether they win or lose. Given that the Bills have done a lot more of the latter since I’ve covered them, it might actually be fun to cover a playoff run at some point.
I think being from here actually helps me. I know how the town reacts when the Bills win, or what it was like when the Sabres were challenging for a Stanley Cup. My best friends are some of the most passionate, smart fans you will find. They have no problem challenging me if they disagree with something I write, and that helps me. I believe they are representative of the fan base as a whole.
10. Do you enjoy covering the draft more or less than your day-to-day beat reporter gig?
Probably less, just because it’s so generally accepted that teams lie at that time of year. If you subscribe to the idea that journalism should be about getting to the truth, that’s not a good feeling. I also feel like the draft should be moved up by at least a couple weeks. By the time it arrives, I feel burned out on talking about prospects, and I feel like a segment of readers lose interest, too. That being said, I appreciate how passionate – and informed – some fans are about the draft and feel like I would be cheating them if I didn’t try to do as much homework as possible on prospects.
11. What if, any, misconceptions do you think fans have toward sports journalism?
By far, the biggest one is that we are invested in the outcome of a game either way. I love when people on Twitter – most of the time they seem to come from New England – tell me I’ve never won a Super Bowl. That’s true. I’m also not in the NFL or affiliated with the Bills in any way. It’s bizarre how people from other markets would think insulting the Bills would have any effect on me.
Of course, it works the other way, too. I think a growing misconception among some fans in Buffalo is that The Buffalo News is out to make the Bills look bad or rejoices in writing about “negative” things. I promise that if the Bills get better, the tone of those articles will change.
Let’s face it: This team has the longest playoff drought in all of North American professional sports. Think about that for a second and let it really sink in. They seem to invent new ways of losing, or making the news in bizarre, unwelcome ways.
So that’s what we write about. When (if?) they get good again, we’ll write about that.
There are others, too. I get asked a lot by people if I “get to go in the locker room.” Some people have even asked me if I could get a player to sign something. I don’t mind the question, and appreciate people taking an interest in what I do, but that definitely is a misconception.
Never in a million years would I do that. My access to the locker room is strictly on a professional basis. I’m there to do a job, and most of the time the players would probably prefer I wasn’t there. While a respect and friendliness can develop with players, there is a very clear line about what would be appropriate, and asking for an autograph or picture or something like that would clearly cross it.
12. When I listen to the [BN] Blitz Podcasts, you and Vic seem to have a pretty good rapport. How has it been to work with such a seasoned vet on such a “new” platform?
Pretty seamless. As you probably know, Vic’s previous stop before coming back to The Buffalo News was with the Cleveland Browns. As part of that job, he hosted a daily radio show, so it’s a format he’s got plenty of experience in and is comfortable with. I appreciate you saying that you feel the rapport is good.
For myself, doing things like podcasts, radio interviews or the occasional TV segment are things I really enjoy. I think I’ve gotten more comfortable with them since I started. My wife, who works in TV, has helped in that regard. If that’s the future of our business, it’s important for me to improve my skills as much as possible.
13. What were three things you wish you knew when you first started that you know now?
That Twitter was going to become the spot for breaking news. I’m a fairly active user, but had I known earlier just how huge it was going to be in our industry, I would have been quicker to truly embrace it.
That the lines between reporter and columnist would be blurred the way that they have been with the advent of blogs. For a long time, I believed reporters should report and leave the opinions to columnists, but that thinking has changed. Along with it, my style has started to change. I have the freedom to write an opinion-based blog, and think my writing has improved with doing so.
That there was a billionaire named Terry Pegula out there who had a love for Buffalo sports and a desire to make sure they stayed in Western New York. That would have been a pretty good scoop when I was first starting out!
14. How do you view teams that have a paid writing staff on their payroll (IE: Chris Brown Bills)? It always seems that there can be a bit of competition or in some cases you view them as having an unfair advantage over TBN because of team exclusive interviews.
Well, there absolutely is competition. We’re all competing for the same readers or viewers. When something happens with the Bills, fans of the team choose where they go to read about it. I want them to come to The Buffalo News.
As far as whether team writers or other media outlets have an unfair advantage is an interesting question. In one sense, they clearly do. When the Bills made their new players or coaches available to the team’s website only, of course that’s an advantage. My request in that situation is that we get the same availability afforded to us. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened.
There is a key point of distinction for me in that what people read on the Bills’ website has been scrubbed clean. That’s no insult to the people who work for it, it’s just reality. The Bills are in the business of selling their football team, and the negativity that comes with missing the playoffs 16 years running isn’t a great way to do that.
I had some fun last season when, after the Bills lost to Washington, and players admitted they had never even had a player’s only meeting, that the lead story on the team’s app was about the holiday party. Sure, I was being snarky, but the point remains: We’re here to write about the Bills – the good and the bad. At that time, things seemed to be unraveling for the team. That was the story that day. Could anyone read about it on the team’s website?
Without going off on too much of a tangent, part of the reason there was such a pushback on the team’s new media policy is because it’s not the Bills who get to decide what is and isn’t newsworthy.
One last point: While it’s true the Bills might get to control access to their players and staff – to a point – that just motivates us to work harder. If the Bills won’t make people available for interviews, we’ve got to get them other ways. If they write a story, we need to write it better.
I’m biased, of course, but I’d say the coverage of the team provided by the staff at The Buffalo News, especially in light of the challenges imposed by the team, is incredibly thorough and does just that.
15. Please give us a great Doug Marrone dictator story when it came to covering him. Can you top Graham’s CSI Cheektowaga story?
Well, no, nothing can top that. Probably my favorite is the rumor that he would have approval over what video clips were put on the team’s website during training camp. I never physically watched him do that, obviously, but I feel pretty comfortable that it’s true. If it is, that really takes paranoia to a new level. I can just imagine, after a long day of practice and meetings, him sitting down to approve what training camp clips are going to be posted.
My other favorite Marroneism is how he would make Scott Berchtold, the team’s vice president of communications, read the injury report. I believe that dates back to when Marrone famously said EJ Manuel would “110 percent” play in the season finale against New England in 2013, then missed the game. For some reason, Marrone felt burned in the media by that, so he started making Berchtold read the injury report, which was always hilarious. Man, I miss that guy.
16. What’s been your best way to balance work life and family life?
That can be tough in the media, since the Bills don’t know when my days off are, and probably wouldn’t care anyway. When news breaks, we need to be ready to report on it, or offer our reaction to it. I don’t want that to sound all “woe is me,” because I’m very fortunate to do what I do for a living, but there is a sense of never truly being off the clock. The best way to combat that is to unplug as best as possible. If my wife and I go out to dinner, we make sure neither of us are on our phones.
I’ve also found that even though I do get to work from home quite a bit, it can be easier to do that someplace else. Elliott, our 2-year-old, has endless energy, and it can be tough to focus on what I need to get done sometimes.
17. How important do you think it is for a MSM personality to have a social media presence?
It’s critical. The reality is an entire generation gets news from their phones, primarily. It’s imperative that I try to reach them through social media.
It’s also the best way to interact with readers. Truth be told, I don’t read the comments underneath my stories (sorry if you’ve been leaving them!), so Facebook comments or Twitter replies are how I get feedback from people – whether that’s good or bad. When I link to one of my stories and people click on it (pretty please!), it’s driving traffic to our website.
That’s what my bosses want, of course, so I’d be a fool not to do it. I realize that the vast majority of people who follow me are doing so for updates on the Bills or other sports I cover, so it’s my job to provide that. I try to do that in an engaging, informative way. I want people to look to me for analysis and insight into the Bills, or whatever it may be that I’m covering, and to gain their trust.
I don’t want to be a robot, though, so I try and tweet about other topics that interest me once in a while, too.
Striking the right balance on social media can be tough. It’s easy to get sucked into the negativity that can take over Twitter. Knowing when to continue the conversation and when to #logoff for a while is something I wrestle with quite a bit.
But the reality is that social media is an absolutely gigantic part of what I do.
18. What’s your ultimate goal in terms of where you want to be in the field?
In many ways, I’ve achieved it. I’m covering the NFL in my hometown at one of the best papers in the country (despite what some may think, and voice – loudly – on Twitter). Knowing that my family and friends can read what I write every day is awesome. I also get to write about golf, which is a huge passion, and have been able to really oversee how that beat is covered at the paper, which I feel I’ve done a good job with. I would say my goal now is just to continue to improve in all aspects of the job. I want to develop the sources necessary to break news. I want to write memorable stories, ones that both entertain and inform readers. My wife and I are proud to call Buffalo home and happy to play our small part in the city’s resurgence.
19. What sort of advice would you give to any college kid looking to get into the media?
The obvious would be to read and write as much as humanly possible. Pretty much every writer will tell you that makes them better, and it’s true. The other thing would be to seek out an internship in whatever field you want to get into. I know that my experience in that regard was priceless. For my last college credits, I interned at the Niagara Gazette. I’ll never forget the thrill of seeing my first byline in a daily newspaper. At the end of the internship, I applied for a job opening there. I didn’t get it, but two or three days later I got a call about a job that was open at the Tonawanda News, which was part of the same company as the Gazette. I got that job and it started my career.
Also, don’t be afraid to do something outside of your comfort zone. I started at the Tonawanda News covering North Tonawanda. That meant getting police reports, covering school board meetings and writing about lots of things that weren’t sports. That all made me a better reporter. When the sports editor job at the paper opened up, I feel my bosses were comfortable with me taking over based on the work I had done. Impress in any way you can and it will lead to good things.
20. If, at the end of it all, folks said “Jay Skurski was _____” – what would that be?
Smart. Witty. Handsome. Stylish. A scratch golfer. A cunning wordsmith. Sorry … I don’t think that’s exactly what you meant.
I hope “the end” is still a long way off, but when it comes I guess the way I’d most like to be remembered is as a good father, husband, son and friend who worked hard to inform and entertain.
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