Donna Ditota: A Sports Writer with a Lifetime of Stories

Donna Ditota- Photo Courtesy of Syracuse.com

By: Danielle Kennedy 


The squeaky sound of basketball sneakers scuffing across a freshly waxed court makes some people cringe and squirm. For Donna Ditota, that noise is her mantra. 
 
Ditota is a sports writer for Syracuse Media Group, covering the Syracuse University men's basketball beat for the Post-Standard newspaper and Syracuse.com. Even as a little girl, Ditota says she knew she wanted to be a sports writer. "I came from a very sporty family and my dad encouraged my brother and I to play sports...I was a good student and one of the things I really liked to do was read and write so I just figured that was a good marriage of the two things."

Ditota grew up in Syracuse, New York and attended college at St. Bonaventure University where she studied Mass Communications and Journalism. During her time there, she was a four-year starting forward on the women's basketball team and the sports editor for the school newspaper, The Bona Venture. Immediately after graduating, Ditota worked as a business reporter for the CNY Business Review for three years. For the past 28 years she has been covering a variety of sports at the Post-Standard. When the beat writer for Syracuse University men's lacrosse left the paper in 1996, she took a chance and accepted the offer to cover the team for a year until the paper could find a replacement. "I had been to maybe three lacrosse games in my entire life and I knew nothing about it," Ditota said. "It was a process of watching a lot of games and reading a lot about it."

Now that she's back on the basketball beat, Ditota says she also loves finding stories that happen off  the court. "I like doing profiles of people and I like breaking down complex issues to a way that people can gain new insights into them."

But let's not forget that she is a woman in a man's world. When asked if that affects the way she approaches her job, Ditota stressed the importance of having 'thick skin.' "I think a lot of what drives journalism, for women, is what you look like, how you're perceived, how you dress, or a lot of things that people don't think about when they're thinking of male reporters," Ditota said. "I think you have to be pretty confident about yourself and pretty aware of yourself in the world and not let any of that bother you."

With even more platforms to share information on, Ditota said that quickly producing more content for Syracuse.com is sometimes a challenge for her. "I try to think of things that I can do in a fairly brief amount of time that will be engaging, but that's the biggest battle of my beat and the biggest battle of my job- the churn of it. It's just a constant battle of trying to figure out how to update that website," Ditota said.

Despite the day-to-day challenges of trying to find a story or an interview falling through, Ditota says she loves her job. When asked about the most memorable moment in her career, Ditota paused and said, "31 years of writing and reporting and to pick out one thing...I don't think I could do it."


___________________________________________________________________________

Donna Ditota Interview Transcription

Q:  Donna, what made you want to pursue a career in sports journalism?

A: Well, you know, I was a good athlete and I went to college on a basketball scholarship so I was always interested in sports. I came from a very sporty family and my dad encouraged my brother and I to play sports and I just really liked sports.  I was a good student and one of the things I really liked to do was read and write, so I just figured that was a good marriage of the two things.

Q: When you were reading, did you have a specific journalist that you looked up to or admired their work?

A: You know, I wish I could say that I remember from back then.  I’ve always been a voracious reader, even as a kid.  I was just always somebody who did a lot of reading.  I read a lot of fiction and I read a lot of non-fiction; I just read a lot.  I spent a lot of time reading.

Q: Can you tell me a little about what a typical day is like for you?

A: The good thing about my job is that I don’t really have a typical day, that’s what I really like about it! Every day is something different! Sometimes I go to the office, sometimes I don’t go to the office, sometimes I go and cover games and sometimes I don’t.  My job right now, now that the basketball season isn’t in session, is a lot different than what my job is like when basketball season is in session because I’m a lot busier during basketball season.  During the off-season, I’m busy in a different way.  I’m busy trying to figure out what I’m going to do.  I try to structure my days and I try to come up with story ideas and that’s a lot harder in the off-season so my days in the summer are dramatically different than my days in the winter.

Q: Which ones do you prefer?

A: I work a lot during the basketball season, I mean, I work everyday during basketball season, but the thing I like about it is that there’s always something to write about and I don’t have to manufacture something to write about.  I don’t have to find something to write about because there’s always something going on.  In the summer, I used to like the summers a lot more until our company changed its philosophy a lot and now we’re focusing on online stuff and that requires a churn of a lot of copy.  So, in the summer, I have to think of a whole bunch of things to write about because we have to get stuff up on the website and there’s not as much to write about.  I like the summers because they are a little more laid back, but I like the winters because there’s more stuff to write about. 

Q: When you sit down to write a story, whether it’s web copy or writing an article that’ll print in the paper, what’s the first thing you think about before you start to write?

A: With probably 70 percent of my stories I know the lead before I sit down and I already know how I’m going to start it, just by whatever I’m researching or whenever I’m interviewing people, I already know how I’m going to start it.  As soon as I get the idea in my head as to how I’m going to start it, the rest of it comes pretty easy so that’s the first thing I have to do- how am I going to lead the story and that’s the first thing I’ll do and write the lead to the story.

Q: What do think defines a great sports piece?

A: It’s something that makes you think about something or moves you in some way.  Something that makes you think about something in a way that you haven’t thought about it before.

Q: When covering Syracuse basketball, how do you develop a rapport with the athletes and the administration but then you have to go and write about them and sometimes the facts may be unpleasant.  How do you handle that?

A:  The first thing is the most important thing: trying to establish relationships with people that you deal with on a daily basis and deal with quite frequently.  I think you want people to know that you’re fair, and that’s the most important thing, that you’re fair about how you treat them and how you treat the subject and how you go about your work, you don’t have any biases, and you want to get to the truth of what happened and get to the cornel of what it is that you’re reporting about.  I think that establishing those relationships is different for different people, but I’m just a fairly, naturally gregarious person so I will essentially chat anybody up about anything.  That’s what I do.  If see them at practice or if I see them at any place, I just talk to them about whatever.  I don’t necessarily talk to them about basketball, even though most of the time I talk to them about basketball, I can talk to them about anything.  I think you try and establish a level of trust and that’s established by what you write and how you interview them, and a level of respect so that when some things do happen that they don’t necessarily want to talk about, and those are never pleasant situations where you’re the person that’s writing them or the person who its being written about, they will trust you and know that you’ve treated them fairly in the past and that they will talk to you about whatever situation has come up that’s not quite as pleasant. 

Q: As a woman in the sports journalism industry, what do you think are some important qualities to have in order to be successful in this industry?

A: I think you have to have a fairly thick skin.  I think a lot of what drives journalism, for women, is what you look like or how you’re perceived or how you dress, or a lot of things that people don’t think about when they’re thinking of male reporters.  I think you have to be pretty confident about yourself and pretty aware of yourself in the world to not let any of that bother you- number one.  Number two, the rest of it, I don’t think is anything different from anybody who is male.  I think I approach my job, I assume, is the way I would approach my job if I were a man, but never having been a man, I don’t know, but I think my personality is my personality and I think that’s how I relate my job in that sense.

Q:  You’ve covered a wide range of sports throughout your career.  How did you educate yourself and learn more about each of those sports and make sure that you were comfortable enough to write about them?

A:  Basketball is an easy one because I played and I know a lot about the game, but I’m always reading stuff about basketball.  One of the new things is analytics and that has come along in the last few years and I’m fascinated by it.  I read a lot of stuff about analytics and I read a lot of explanations about why analytics are important and I read a lot about analytics themselves.  I read about how those processes are done and it fascinates me.  It’s a new area of a way that I can do my job so I ask a lot of questions and I read a lot of stuff and I think that’s an important thing for young people to understand when they get into the business is that there isn’t a stupid question you can ask and there isn’t a question that you should feel embarrassed to ask because the only way you’re going to learn more is to ask about it.  I’ll give you a quick example- I covered basketball for a long time and I got off the basketball beat and the guy who was covering lacrosse left the paper so they asked me if I would cover lacrosse for a year until they found someone to cover lacrosse so I said sure but I literally knew nothing about lacrosse…I had been to maybe three lacrosse games in my entire life and I knew nothing about it.  It was a process of watching a lot of games and reading a lot about it.  I was lucky in this situation because when I covered Syracuse lacrosse, there were a lot of guys on that team and the coaches were great.  I would ask them a question and their answer would be lacrosse jargon and I would have no idea what they were talking about so I would say, ‘you’re going to have to break that down for me in layman’s terms because I don’t know what you mean.’  There were times when I had people diagram things for me on paper to explain what it was that they were talking about and I never felt bad about it.  I always felt that my job is to, in some ways, educate and entertain people, but if I don’t understand it myself, how am I going to be able to convey to someone else the truth of what’s happening in these circumstances.  I don’t you should ever be ashamed to ask something that you think might be stupid because there are no stupid questions…ask away!

Q: Why did you decide to make the transition and teach for a little bit at SU?

A: Because somebody asked me to do it.  Honestly, I wish I could give you a deeper and more philosophical answer, like I wanted to help young people in their careers, but in the beginning, somebody said, ‘this job is opening and I think you’d be great for it,’ and that’s how I got the job.  I haven’t taught in a long time and I loved it and I would love to come back to it but I haven’t taught in five or six years. 

Q: What’s your favorite part about your job?

A: My favorite part about my job is interviewing people and sort of getting the germ of that person and who that person is and then conveying it through writing.  I like doing profiles of people and I like breaking down complex issues to a way that people can gain new insights into them.  I like the interview process a lot and that’s probably my favorite part of my job, and in the writing process, I like to tackle big, complicated stories.  I like that process and it’s more challenging than writing a 10-inch or 15-inch story, but I like doing that too.

Q:  What’s the most challenging part of your job?

A:  The most challenging part is the way journalism has evolved and that you’re always at the churn of the business, and trying to come up with ideas that you aren’t necessarily sold on them yourself but you have to get something up on the website, so you have you come up with something that won’t be totally embarrassing to put up there, but Sometimes it’s a reach and sometimes I do things that I would prefer that I was not doing.

Q:  How do you work through that?

A:  I try to think of things to do and I try to think of things that I think would be compelling.  I try to think of things that I think I can do in a fairly brief amount of time that will be engaging, but that’s the biggest battle of my beat and the biggest battle of my job is the churn of it and it’s just a constant battle of trying to figure out how to update that website. 

Q: What’s the most memorable moment for you in your career?

A: The most memorable moment in my career…I’m actually coming up with a complete blank, I don’t remember anything particularly memorable, I mean, I’ve done a lot of stuff and written a lot of stuff but it’s been a long, career.  31 years of writing and reporting and to pick out one thing, I don’t think I could do it. 

Interview with Donna Ditota