It’s all worth knowing
CBS Sports NBA writer and Hardwood Paroxysm editor emeritus Matt Moore has been through the journalism ringer, ending up with a wide-ranging skillset that keeps him in great shape
By JARED MARTINSON | Writer
Matt Moore self-started and grew his network by writing and writing and writing some more, becoming an editor in the process. His basketball blog, Hardwood Paroxysm, takes in aspiring journalists and gives them a platform to display the issues they care about to a national audience. Moore’s path to CBS Sports was unorthodox, but staying in a prominent position has required expansion of his communication abilities.
What does a typical week in your job look like?
“A lot of it’s research, looking at film, looking at trends statistically, analyzing that kind of stuff. I’ll send in a budget [to CBS Sports] for what I’m going to be working on in the next week, then I’m pretty much just working on those pieces during the week, keeping an eye on if there’s breaking news and adjusting to that, and staying in line with our more broad editorial projects. I do a lot of video work along with various radio and podcast appearances, so I’m staying busy all the time.”
How much of your job do you take home with you?
“Unless I’m at a game, I’m home, which is nice because I get to see my kids a lot, but at the same time … I end up working a lot of late nights. I work typically until between 1:30 and 3:30 in the morning.”
What’s one failure and one success story from your career?
“[As a writer], I didn’t really develop sources until the last year and a half. I kept trying to and it just wasn’t something I was very good at. I had to work on it, get better at it, to form those kinds of relationships.
“As far as a success story, at Paroxysm: We’ve had 41 people go through there and get hired in full-time or part-time positions in sports and sports media, and that’s pretty great. It’s pretty awesome to be able to say we’ve had that kind of influence on getting good people who work hard an opportunity. That’s what I’m most proud of in my career.”
Can you talk about your path from high school to where you are now?
“In high school, I was very into journalism. I ran the school paper. I was on the radio. Then I went to college and I didn’t have good experiences with the journalism school. So I wound up doing psychology and going down a different path, and after college I was just kind of hanging out while working a day job. I didn’t really have a career plan. I tried writing a couple times and hadn’t gotten anything picked up.
“This was when the blog culture for sports really started to take off, so I started Paroxysm. I ended up getting linked to ESPN and Yahoo!, and got a part-time job with AOL FanHouse for two years. Through that and running Paroxysm, I got a job with NBC Sports doing the weekend shift for ProBasketballTalk. Six months later at a blog conference, I met my boss at CBS Sports and convinced him to give me a shot, and now I’ve been here for seven years.”
Who’s one mentor that influenced your journey?
“Sam Amick [of USA TODAY] has been really helpful to me. He’s someone I’ve gone to for help and advice on various things, someone who’s assisted me a lot throughout my career.”
What excites you the most about what you do?
“When I’m working on a really deep feature, like when I sit down with an NBA player and have him diagram plays for me, think what he’s thinking, doing that kind of material is really engaging.
“Also if someone has a great idea that they want me to help flesh out, I think being involved in that creative process is excellent.”
Why is being an editor a good fit for you?
“I’m good at working with writers to find out what they’re actually trying to say. A lot of times writers have all these ideas in their heads and I ask them what they’re really trying to get at and what the readers are going to care about. That middle ground between what the writer is saying and what the reader cares about is the area I’ve excelled at in the editing process.”
How do you deal with pushback from editors and readers?
“I think the criticism is fair. I honestly don’t have any problem with it at all. I like feedback that’s constructive. I’ve worked really hard at being a partner editors can work with and someone who wants to get the work to the best it can be. With readers, it’s all over the place, but now it’s not just people who comment on the site or hit me up on Twitter, it’s everybody else — all the people who read the work and enjoy it but won’t ever comment. Those are the people I try to keep in mind when I write stuff.”
“I do [social media] more than most because I use it as a testing ground. I find out a lot about my ideas and how they’re received; if I suggest something and the response is ‘That’s really fascinating’ or ‘What the hell is going on?,’ that tells me I’m onto something. And if there’s no reaction to it, then I’m probably not going in the right direction.”
What is your formula for interacting with the social media population?
“I do it more than most because I use it as a testing ground. I find out a lot about my ideas and how they’re received; if I suggest something and the response is ‘That’s really fascinating’ or ‘What the hell is going on?’, that tells me I’m onto something. And if there’s no reaction to it, then I’m probably not going in the right direction. I use it as a notebook more than anything.”
“An ESPN editor once told me this: ‘If I need somebody to write a pretty paragraph, I have a hundred people I can call. If I need somebody to organize content and put together a plan for that content and be able to execute it across multiple platforms, there’s five people I can call.’ And that’s the difference in where the industry has gone.”
What do young people need to know as they enter this job market?
“Versatility. You need to be able to do as much as possible; understand social media, understand video, how to produce it, how to be on camera, voice-over, those kinds of things. Podcasting is huge, having a voice, knowing how to have a conversation, how to interview. It’s important now because media is integrated with everything else, and if you just want to be a writer, you’ll have less opportunities.
“An ESPN editor once told me this: ‘If I need somebody to write a pretty paragraph, I have a hundred people I can call. If I need somebody to organize content and put together a plan for that content and be able to execute it across multiple platforms, there’s five people I can call.’ And that’s the difference in where the industry has gone.”
The most useful concept I gathered from this interview with Matt Moore was the fact that every publication is looking for promising people with more abilities than just putting words into a document. Technology is advancing at such a fast pace that voices and producers are always needed for podcasts and shows. Astraight 2,000-word article doesn’t get the interaction it used to. Video, audio, graphics — it all means more than ever to media outlets, especially in sports. Being willing to grow in those areas will only increase my opportunities as a writer or eventually as an editor.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
