Home Is Where The Heart Is for Brian Cunniff

Brian Cunniff became the sports editor for The Cape May County Gazette when he was just 23. That fact alone was a surprise to Cunniff, he said. Cape May is a small beach town about 30 miles south of Atlantic City, NJ.

“My initial thought was to come down here for a couple of years and get some experience and move on and what I found was I loved living down here and I love the community down here it’s a place I really don’t want to leave,” Cunniff said.

Before Cunniff made the official move to Cape May, he was living in Philadelphia, PA travelling back and forth on the weekends to work part-time for The Gazette.

Cunniff never played sports past high school but wanted to find a way to stay involved; broadcast journalism was his answer. He also covers local football and basketball games on the radio. Cunniff has had opportunities to cover events and stories at the collegiate and professional levels, but prefers working at the local level.

“…really at this juncture (I) have no desire to cover beyond what I’m doing,” he said. “I think what happens at this level is that…people get a lot of joy out of seeing coverage in the newspaper or...on the radio of local sports.”

Cunniff won New Jersey Sports Writer of the Year in 2009 and was nominated again last year, but didn’t win.

“That’s something that obviously I’m very proud of,” he said. “It’s great to be recognized by your peers because it’s something that’s voted on by your peers.”

Cunniff likes writing and broadcasting equally, but writing is his first love.

“Writing to me isn’t work,” he said. “Work to me is doing a page layout or typing in a press release. But actually sitting down in front of a computer and writing? I’ve never considered that work.”

While the newspaper industry is a dying industry, research that’s done in the media shows that a lot of people believe that weekly newspapers will survive because they really serve a niche.

“We cover a lot of things people don't,” Cunniff said. “It's a way for local people to stay in touch with what’s going on in their local communities and larger media outlets can’t do that like we can.”

The sports media industry is an industry where a lot of times people have to move around.

“…Granted I’m not at a very high level, but the amount of people that have been at the same media outlet for 18 or 19 years like I have been is very, very minute,” Cunniff said.

Local sports have a special place in Cunniff’s heart.

“I enjoy going to games and meeting people and highlighting the accomplishments of kids that love to play, who play for the love of the game, not because they’re getting paid or because they’re on scholarship,” he said.

“The great thing about a weekly newspaper and what I do is that 95-percent of the stuff that I write is positive. Every once in a while you’re going to have that negative story but when you’re writing about kids you try to always stay with the positive,” he said.

Brian Cunniff Interview

Danielle: What made you want to get into the sports media business when you went into college?

Brian: Well, I guess one of the things, like anybody else, I think if you have an interest in sports and obviously you’re only going to be able to play to a certain level…for me I wasn’t good enough to play anywhere after high school in any sports. But, it’s a great way to stay involved in it. And then, I guess probably what merged it was when I was in high school I really kind of learned that I liked to write. That’s what kind of got me into it a little bit. Even though, like I said, my degree is actually in a broadcast and journalism track I was always very interested in newspaper and print journalism at the time. Obviously twenty years ago when I got out of school, newspapers were a little better industry to get involved in than they are now.

Danielle: What game or story that you have written or covered was your most memorable one?

Brian: I guess maybe the biggest one was when the Wildwood Girls Basketball team won the first of their three straight state championships. When they were in the state semi-final, they upset a team that was ranked I think second or third in the state, which was Rumson Fairhaven and they beat them by one. And how they won the game was, the game was tied, I think Rumson had scored, and there was only like three seconds left and Monica Johnson dribbled the ball up the court and got bumped at half court. She realized the contact was coming and threw the ball up toward the basket and they actually gave her a three shot foul with like eight tenths of a second left. She missed the first, made the second, and missed the third on purpose so the clock would run out and they wouldn’t be able to inbound and they won by one. That’s probably the most memorable event that I’ve covered in terms of just like the wow-ness factor. I mean, I’ve been to bigger events, I’ve covered different things with whether there’s been a pro involved or I’ve done some stuff for college and things like that. But, in terms of the game that’s probably the most memorable thing that comes to mind.

Danielle: So, would you say you like covering local sports more than college or professional sports?

Brian: I really at this juncture have no desire to cover beyond what I’m doing. I get a thrill out of covering kids playing sports because they play for the love of the game.  I like college as well, but I think everybody when they start out wants to get to the highest level that they can. But I’m getting to the point where I’m very disenchanted with pro sports…dealing with the athletes and the money involved and just the kind of adversarial relationship like as you go up the ladder in sports that’s created with sports teams and players and coaches with the media. And I think what happens at this level is that for the most part people get a lot of joy out of seeing coverage in the newspaper or hear it on the radio of local sports, so that’s why I would rather just stick with that.

Danielle: Do you have any goals that you still haven’t reached yet that you would like to reach?

Brian: Well, I did win New Jersey Sports Writer of the Year in 2009 and I was nominated again last year in 2012 and didn’t win. I would certainly like to win that again. Maybe win it multiple times. That’s something that obviously I’m very proud of. It’s great to be recognized by your peers because it’s something that’s voted on by your peers.  It’s the National Sports Casters and Sports Writers Association and the members of that vote on that. I certainly would like to win that again at some point.

Danielle: It seems like you like writing more than broadcasting. Why do you like writing more so than broadcasting or live sports coverage?

Brian: Well, I don’t know if I do. I think I probably like both equally. The thing about writing is, writing to me isn’t work. Work to me, like when I’m working for the newspaper, work to me is doing page layout or typing in a press release or getting scores reported and have to decipher stuff or sometimes even going to certain games that you don’t want to cover. Like there’s certain sports I don’t like but you have to do it in fairness and to do the coverage, but actually sitting down in front of a computer and writing I’ve never considered that work. It’s something that I really enjoy. I think its one of those things that unfortunately, I think in some ways it’s one of those things that comes naturally. I think you can learn to be a good writer but I think it also a lot of it comes naturally and I guess I’ve just always naturally been that because I don’t know that I’ve ever done anything to really hone the skill other than just writing a lot because I never took a ton of classes in terms of really focusing on just writing.

Danielle: Is there anything else that you want to tell me that you think is important that you think I should know about your life, about your career and where it’s going?

Brian: I will say a couple things. Number one, the newspaper industry is obviously a dying industry. Our group seems to be doing well. If you follow the research that’s done in media and things like that, the interesting thing is a lot of people believe that the weekly newspapers are the ones that will survive because they really serve a niche. We cover things that a lot of people don’t. It’s a way for local people to stay in touch with what’s going on in their local communities and larger media outlets can’t do that like we can. That would be one thing I would say about the industry I’m in. I feel very fortunate, and granted I’m not at a very high level, but the amount of people that have been at the same media outlet for 18 or 19 years like I have been is very, very minute. It’s an industry where a lot of times you have to move around, as there’s cutbacks, places close, there’s mergers in media and people have to move around a lot but I’ve been very fortunate not to do that. I actually moved down here, basically my initial thought was to come down here for a couple of years and get some experience and move on and what I found was I loved living down here and I love the community down here. It’s a place I really don’t want to leave. The second thing I would say from a personal standpoint is that the very fortunate thing that I have that a lot of people have never experienced in their lives is I have never woken up and not wanted to go to work. It’s something that I really enjoy. I know its cliché, a lot of people say this when they really like their job, but to get paid to do what I do is a bonus because I enjoy going to games and meeting people and highlighting the accomplishments of kids that love to play, who play because they have a love for the game, not because they're getting paid or because they’re on scholarship or something like that. I get a big kick out of that. The great thing about a weekly newspaper and what I do is that 95% of the stuff that I write is positive. Every once in a while you’re going to have that negative story but when you’re writing about kids you try to always stay with the positive. And like I said, it has just become very enjoyable over the years to do both the newspaper and the radio and like I said I’ve never really looked at it as work. It’s just like something I do because I enjoy it and I happen to be fortunate enough to get a paycheck for it.