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Brian Wong
Assistant sports editor
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A page designed by Brian Wong
A page designed by Brian Wong
A page designed by Brian Wong
Brian Wong
What inspired you to become a journalist?
In ninth grade, journalism
was the class that needed a teacher’s signature to take, so I figured it was
the toughest of the English courses. Once I enrolled, it was amazing how things
came together for me. I had this ability to write and communicate. I worked
for the school newspaper and won numerous writing awards at school, including
Journalist of the Year. Thus, my career sort of fell into place by itself and
as they say, the rest is history.
Please describe your current job?
I work as a sports copy
editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune. My job involves editing stories and writing
headlines, designing pages in the Sports section, including the sports cover,
and working in the composing room to make sure we meet deadline in the paste-up
of these pages.
What’s a rewrite person?
A person who takes copy
from the wire services and rewrites it with the local angle that suits his/her
reading audience the best.
What is agate?
The little dinky type in
the Sports section that contains standings, statistics, results of the previous
day’s events.
What’s the best part of the job?
Being able to produce something
that affects so many people (the U-T’s Sunday circulation is nearly 500,000).
I put myself in the reader’s shoes every day and wonder if this is what the
average sports fan wants to read about when the paper lands on the doorstep.
It’s a thrill to pick up the paper in the morning and see the final product.
How do you handle deadline pressure?
By staying cool, calm and
collected. No reason to ever stress out, right?
How do you avoid cliches when you write
headlines?
Write one headline straight
and then write a creative, more catchy one. Unfortunately, cliches can’t be
avoided sometimes, but there’s always more than one hed per story. Try a couple
of different ones and see what works best with the story.
Is it hard being in the newsroom most
of the time instead of being out on a story?
I used to be a sports reporter,
so I know what it’s like to be in the middle of the action. It’s a whole different
type of deadline. There are times when I miss reporting, but being in the office
isn’t so bad. I know where I am and what time I have to be there every day.
It was never that defined as a reporter.
Are you a sports junkie when you’re not
working?
Yes. I love going to games
and watching sports events on TV. I feel that I need to be well-informed in
order to be a source of information for our readers. It’s easy going to work
every day when you love what you do.
What advice do you have for aspiring journalists?
Don’t be afraid to try different
things, newspaper, TV, radio, public relations, etc. Once you find what your
niche, then go for it. I told friends in high school that I was going to be
a Howard Cosell-type sports dude one day in the future and here I am now living
my dream.