Last month I had the opportunity to share my ideas about the history and finances of intercollegiate athletics and did so in The Washington Post. Many of you know that The Washington Post hosts the Made By History page, which allows academics to share history primers on topics aligned with their scholarship. In this case, my experience as a doctoral student qualified me to discuss why “[p]rofit motives make fixing college sports nearly impossible.”
The piece, its placement and its reach could not align more closely with the advice we give our clients. First, the topic is one I am passionate about and is in my area of academic scholarship, therefore I had no trouble writing it. In fact, in true academic fashion, I initially wrote a 4,000-word version that was significantly trimmed to the 1,000-word limit for the section. Second, a timely hook presented itself as the piece ran the morning of the March Madness final game. Finally, we promoted it through TVP Comms and I promoted it on my social accounts. I’m pleased to say I have new LinkedIn connections based on an overlap in interests and I was super honored when The Simmons School at Southern Methodist University shared a link to the piece in their newsmaker space.
Sometimes everything comes together and is wrapped up with a bow, and luckily I was the recipient of one of these amazing gifts from the TVP Comms team. Big thank you to Ali Lincoln and Cristal Steuer for helping me accomplish this bucket list placement and if you haven’t read it, I would love an extra set of eyes on the piece and welcome feedback on my perspective.
Photo by Dave Adamson on Unsplash