AA: On the fan front, I know you mentioned you’re a big Jets fan, and you’ve taken some criticism from Patriots fans already over this.

JB: Is that what we call it now, criticism? [Laughs]

AA: Do you feel that’s fair? How do you feel about that?

JB: I mean, that’s fine, they have a right to their opinion the same as I do. So I don’t really object. To whether it’s fair or not, I guess…you know, anybody who’s a fan in life, most of us have a regular job. You have to be able to put aside your fandom to do your job. I would imagine if you’re a Patriots fan and you’re a paramedic, and you get called to help somebody who’s got a Jets jersey on, I assume you help him. That’s your job. That’s your job if you’re fixing their car. My job is as a journalist, I’ve been doing it for 30 years now. My entire reputation rides on doing that job ethically. Whatever gets put in front of me that involves teams that I might root against on a weekly basis because I’m a Jets fan, that has no bearing on it at all. Whether people want to believe that or not is totally up to them. I have a feeling based on my Twitter feed there’s some element I’ll never satisfy, but that’s fine. I’d just say if you find any Patriots fan in media who knows me, most of them would say “He’ll be just fine.”

I think in a lot of ways it’s a very easy separation to make. I root for my team on the field, I rooted for them yesterday. But when there’s journalism done about them, it feels like a very different thing to me. I just don’t view it as being the same. So as far as I’m concerned, it’s not an issue. But I won’t judge whether it’s fair or not. I signed up for the job. People can question my lineage and ask me to perform anatomically-impossible things as many times as they want if that’s what they choose to do.

AA: I think you mentioned at one point there’s plans to try and address things more quickly and in different mediums. Maybe some mention of Twitter, some mention of maybe podcasts. Can you give me any more details of that?

JB: Some of that’s still to be worked out, but part of the overall discussion is of a sense that something’s being addressed. That may be even at times be as simple as something’s happening, people are saying “Hey, ombudsman, where the hell are you?” and at times, I think you can say, “Look, I’m working on it. I don’t have anything to say today, but I’ll be back with something soon.” It’s just having that dialogue with people and I think it’s just sort of letting people know there’s a pulse there. Somebody’s listening and somebody’s paying attention. I think in a digital world, that’s very important.

We’ve all seen that for 20 years now, or I guess 15 really, with comments. People complain about the low quality of comments, but anyone who knows that space well enough knows the easiest way to get your comments to improve is to get in there and answer them, get in there and respond, be part of the conversation as opposed to just letting it sit there and fester into this unproductive conversation. So I think that’s kind of the idea here. I’ll make sure people know I’m there. I’m not always going to have an answer for them at the moment they ask a question, but I’ll let them know that I’m listening, that I’ll look into things that make sense to look into. So I think it’s just more of a sense that there’s somebody there, a presence, even if that presence isn’t going to be there right every day to respond within a half hour. It’s just to let people know that I’m on it and eventually I’ll publish something that addresses it. I do think that’s a very important thing in a digital landscape, the sense that there’s a connection there somewhere, that I’m not talking into a dead phone.

AA: How do you plan to balance your work in this new role with your work at Billy Penn?

JB: Well, I think that’s part of the conversation: I do have a day job, I run a site that I’m very proud of, I’m looking to expand into other cities in the near term, and that has to be my day job. With that said, I just dropped off a couple of boards that were very time-consuming, and I’m very good at managing my time. Obviously a lot of what I do at ESPN when possible will be on weekends, and will be looking at times when I’m not as busy with the main site, but it’s just about discipline and managing time. And I don’t run Billy Penn day-to-day; I have a terrific editor and a terrific business team, so it’s not like I’m the person in charge of it on an hour-to-hour basis. I’m the founder and the funder, and the guy planning for its growth, which is a big job, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not out there chasing stories in Philadelphia. I have a great team doing that. So I have zero concern about juggling my time; it’s always been a strength.

AA: Last one for you; what do you want to accomplish in your term as public editor? Is there anything in particular?

JB: It would be great to accomplish having the general public have more of an understanding of how the organization operates and what its journalistic credos are. I think at the end of this, if there’s a sense that the organization is more transparent and more accessible than it was in the past, I think that’s a good thing. I’m a big believer in those particular terms, those particular things, so that would be nice. You know, people ask me “How much of an impact will you have?” and obviously, that’s a question I can’t answer. If I do my work, if I make the best arguments I can for my positions on things, and if I make those arguments well and coherently, I have a better chance of changing how and whether people react or not. But that’s sort of outside my ability. All I can do is do my job the best I can and hope that has the intended impact, and I guess we’ll be able to review that in 18 months.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

Comments are closed.