DIARY OF A SPORTS EDITOR

Entry One...March 2013

I've moved over to the dark side....from the glamorous, light-infused world of attending sports events, meeting celebrities and penning articles that are read by millions (well, by my mum and dad, in any case), to the darkness of the office...sitting there at midnight on a Saturday wondering where the golf copy from the USA's got to and whether the headlines are punchy enough.

I'm the Sports Editor of the Mail on Sunday and it's a glorious job but I'm not sure that many people outside the industry have any idea what a sports editor does. Indeed, few people know anything about the journalism jobs that go on behind the scenes, without picture by-lines and to little acclaim. Sports fans can name their favourite writers, but will have no idea about those hovering in the background, appointing the writers and making sure they look as good as they can on the page.

Since I'm not writing now, and therefore embarrassingly short of material to put up on the website until the next book comes out, I thought I'd do sporadic updates about life as a sports editor, and attempt to run though and flesh out the other jobs that exist on a sports desk that go unnoticed, as well as dealing with some of the issues that arise and the problems that need to be solved, and some of the lovely things that happen...

Alison