Ryan Koenigsberg: "Every single thing that you do is just free marketing..."

Published on August 1, 2016

Story by Kelsey Snider 
Photo fromTwitter 

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Does being a sports writer mean being all business all the time?

No. A writer’s personality can shine through via social media platforms.

“It doesn’t always have to be all business,” Ryan Koenigsberg of BSN Denver said in a telephone interview last week. 

“I tweet stuff that’s stupid. I’m sure a lot of people think it’s stupid all the time, but it’s funny to me. It kind of shows people a bit of my personality, which they then can kind of feel when they read my writing.”

Koenigsberg is a graduate of the University of Colorado (CU), where he received his bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism and communications. He wrote as an intern for a website that covers CU and became the lead writer after about a year. Upon graduation, Koenigsberg became a beat writer for the Denver Broncos for BSN Denver, a website that covers Denver’s professional sports teams and some University level sports teams in Colorado.

Koenigsberg says one of the key aspects that helped him land his career at BSN Denver is the use of social media, specifically Twitter.

“Obviously having a big presence on Twitter that’s the number one thing I would preach to anyone; your presence on Twitter and getting embedded in the community of whatever team you’re covering," Koenigsberg said. "I would credit, not all my success, but that has been the number one catalyst to everything,” 

Koenigsberg says the use of social media is free marketing and helps to build a brand or personality that readers will recognize.

Q&A: Ryan Koenigsberg_Beat writer for the Broncos

Q: How did you get to where you are today?

A: Well, it’s kind of been a long path. When I was in school at CU, I didn’t really know I liked writing or anything like that, and you know I was a big fan of sports and all that. One of the guys I followed, who was covering CU at the time, on Twitter just “tweeted” out like hey if any younger journalists are looking to get some experience I’m hiring an intern. So I was like oh why not I’ll give it a shot, and so I didn’t really fit the description of the job, but I met with the guy and he was like oh you seem like a cool kid who I’d like to hang out with so I’ll bring you along through the rough patch here as you get started. I kind of just did that for a little while and then went from there from an intern at that site to the lead writer at that site after only about a year. Then after that I moved up to a bigger site that was part of rivals.com and I was doing that for a while and then right as I graduated I got hired by BSN Denver, which is where I work now to cover CU. I did that for a while, loved it, had a lot of fun. At the beginning of the company, we developed one of the original people writing for the company and worked pretty hard and toward the end of the last Bronco season got a promotion up to the Broncos and I’ve been doing that ever since.

Q: What was your major in undergrad then?

A: I majored in Broadcast Journalism and Communication.

Q: So you did have a little bit of experience doing interviewing and stuff like that?

A: Right. So I actually started working and doing those internships before I even got accepted into the journalism school at CU. So when I started working I actually didn’t have any experience and then kind of got my experience in the field before I started doing it as a major.

Q: What does being a beat reporter for the Broncos entail?

A: Basically, anytime there is a press conference or anything like that, I’m there. I just actually moved from Boulder to Centennial down closer to where the Broncos are to be there more often. So, you know, you’re at the press conference, asking questions that sort of thing and then as soon as it’s over, especially with the Broncos, everything is so time sensitive. As soon as it’s over, you got to go right to your computer and get writing because there’s so many outlets covering the Broncos, which has been one of the harder transitions from covering the Buffs. When I was covering CU, there’s three, four writers maybe there at once and if you have a good story you have a little bit of time to work on it and that sort of thing. With the Broncos, every outlet in the state has a writer there. It’s not like you have to necessarily rush everything, but you don’t have time to sit around or else the story that you want will be written by someone else and it won’t be “green” anymore. Obviously having a big presence on Twitter that’s the number one thing I would preach to anyone; your presence on Twitter and getting embedded in the community of whatever team you’re covering. I would credit, not all my success, but that has been the number one catalyst to everything. It’s just building a personality on Twitter, interacting with fans on Twitter, all that sort of thing. Every single thing that you do is just free marketing for yourself. Really just building a brand on there that people recognize. It doesn’t always have to be all business. I tweet stuff that’s stupid. I’m sure a lot of people think it’s stupid all the time, but it’s funny to me. It kind of shows people a bit of my personality, which they then can kind of feel when they read my writing. Getting in the community, following people that are fans, that are your readers that sort of thing. And then we also do more than just writing, we just launched a T.V., we call it T.V. obviously it’s on the web, side of our website. So the broadcast side of things to doing on-air stuff, whatever that may be at the time. Doing wrap ups from practice, that sort of thing, and then we also do podcasts. So our kind of goal for our website and something that I really enjoy for working for BSN is we try and cover everything. If you work for a newspaper, there’s a good chance that you’re just writing or that sort of thing. We kind of, you’re writing, you’re on camera, doing podcasts kind of the best of the whole world. Just trying to be as balanced of a journalist as I can.

Q: What would be the best way to prepare to become a sports writer? What would be the best way that I could prepare to get into the real world?

A: To me it’s writing, just write. It depends on what your strengths are. There’s always a path. For me, I always felt the best path was use my writing to build a personality and then be able to do other stuff. I would use my on-air personality to get in an avenue towards writing, or use my radio personality for that sort of thing, but I think writing is such a good way to kind of learn the industry and kind of build what you want to be your brand, your personality. If you just write, it just helps everything. It helps when you have to write a script for an on-air bit or whatever it is. The more you write is always going to help you. It forces you to do research on what you’re writing about, and that, obviously, gets you more informed. But then, I’ll go back to social media, just build that, build that so much. Whatever it is that you want to be involved in, whether it’s Denver sports or New York sports or somewhere in between, try and kind of follow it. Tweet when you see something that catches your eye, whatever it is try and just build something on there. The more people that follow you on there, the more people that are going to follow your career as it happens. I have so many people that have been following me on Twitter since before I was even writing, and they’ve known me and kind of known my personality on there. So when it comes down to, are they going to read me or read Mike Klis, who’s the big Bronco guy, they’re like oh I read Ryan because I’ve known him since he was 18 or whatever online. It’s just kind of getting people to know your name and see your name in as many places as they can in whether a byline or a tweet or something on Instagram or whatever it is. When people see your name, the more they see it, the more they recognize it. So when you’re active on those platforms, it really helps.

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