Rick Seto is a a sports
reporter for the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton, Mass.
Since this was published, Seto has become a sports writer
at the Union-News, Springfield, Mass. |
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— Become Part
of the Community
Rick Seto has spent most of his newspaper career with small community
newspapers in his home state of Massachusetts.
As a 15-year-old growing up in Dracut, Seto was a high school sports
correspondent for the town’s weekly paper — until a new free weekly hired
him away with a $5 raise to $25 per week.
Upon graduation from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst with
a journalism/political science degree in 1992, Seto, now 26, got his first
job at the Olyooke Transcript-Telegram as a writer on a three-man sports
staff.
Seto moved on to the Springfield Newspapers, a regional daily with
a circulation of 100,000, as a part-time sportswriter. Seto, a second generation
Chinese-American, found a full-time position at the Daily Hampshire Gazette
in Northampton (circulation 21,000) in August 1994.
In 1996, he won an award for outstanding reporting of high school
sports.
The most wonderful thing about working for a small newspaper is the
ability to make an impact.
Working on a small staff, your voice and input will become part of the
finished product. In the newsroom, there is a close-knit bond. There is
a feeling that “we are all in this together.”
Writing game stories, features, notebooks and columns gives people a
sense that their community is being represented in the paper. For the fans,
especially the parents of athletes, your work becomes synonymous with their
opinion of your entire paper.
High school sports, especially in rural areas, bring people together.
Often “the big game” is the event of the week in town. People tend to live
vicariously through their sports teams, especially the successful ones.
You can see your influence while on assignment, whether it is a parent
trying to schmooze for an extra mention about his or her kid, or listening
to complaints about headlines, photographs and even mistakes.
Working for a small papers allows you to become part of the community,
especially if you live within your circulation area. In the reporter-coach
relationship that is central to covering high school sports, there is nothing
I enjoy more than being able to call a local coach and say, “Hi, this is
Rick from ‘the paper,’ ” knowing that we both know that my paper is the
paper of record.
As a person of color working in an area with a small percentage of minorities,
I feel an added responsibility. One’s behavior and actions likely will
dictate people’s perception of your ethnicity. I do not look at it as a
burden; rather, I view it as an opportunity.
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