Communiqué
Retired NFL Journalist Peter King ’79 shares career advice with students from WOUB and The Post
< < Back to retired-nfl-journalist-peter-king-79-shares-career-advice-with-students-from-woub-and-the-postBy Sofia Osio
ATHENS, OH – Peter King, a recently retired NFL journalist and Ohio University graduate, has one simple but profound piece of advice for aspiring sports journalists – be great.
“Whatever job you get, I don’t care how little you make. I don’t care how wonderful the job is or how crappy the job is. Be great at it,” said King. “And if you want to make sure you’re not there long and you have higher aspirations, the only way you’re going to get out of there, the only way, is to be great at the job you’re doing.”
On Wednesday, September 11, King was the first speaker of the fall semester in the WOUB Wednesday series. During WOUB Wednesdays, alumni join virtually to speak with students who are gathered on the 3rd floor of the Radio and Television Building (RTV) on the Ohio University Athens campus.
During his career, King worked at many different media outlets, including Sports Illustrated, ABC Television as halftime correspondent for Monday Night Football, CNN as an NFL reporter, HBO as managing editor and reporter of Inside the NFL, and NBC Sports as reporter for Football Night in America. He was named national sportswriter of the year in 2010, 2012 and 2013 in a vote of his peers by the National Sports Media Association.
With the growing number of ways people are consuming information and the various online platforms to tell stories, King encouraged students to become multi-faceted by learning print, video and digital journalism skills, and to be open to anything. King told the students that his career in sports came about by a simple connection with the sports editor at an internship and it was a “total, absolute stroke of luck; it was honestly fate that really led me to sports.”
King replied to one student’s question for advice on having a successful career with a suggestion to become the very best at any assignment they are given because it will show how bad they really want it.
“Talking to Peter King was a very cool and original experience,” said WOUB student Lindsey Crawford. “He is very knowledgeable in his field and gave a lot of good advice to the students.”
King also talked about the importance of maintaining integrity and the importance of networking and internships.
“Honestly, that’s where everything happened for me professionally. You know, I had two internships in Cincinnati after my junior and senior years, and that’s where I kind of made a mark,” King said. “So, the best networking you can do early in your career is to get a good internship.”
The next WOUB Wednesday is scheduled for September 25 at 7:30 p.m. with MSNBC Line Producer Graylyn Roose ’12. Those interested in participating can attend in person by coming to the 3rd Floor of the RTV Building in Radio A or join online at bit.ly/WOUBWednesday2024.