In 2007, when my colleague John Genzale asked me to come up with a class on communications for a fledgling program that had just launched at Columbia in the School of Professional Studies AND did I want to write a book about the topic, I laughed.
I had taken a stab at teaching at NYU…a class that was called International Sports Business…but Columbia? And a book? The timing was kinda right…we were closing down what was to be my last “fulltime” job at the International Fight League (I didn’t know it at the time that it would be) and although I was being thrown into this deep pool of working for myself by people like John, two other friends in Meredith Geisler, and Jon Pessah, I wasn’t anywhere sure if I could swim.
Well along came people like Dr. Harvey Schiller and the International Baseball Federation and his company Global Options, Chris Russo and his platform The Big Lead, and Gary Abbott and work with USA Wrestling tied to the Beijing Olympics, and suddenly I learned how to paddle a bit. Seventeen years later I still thrashing about in the pool but doing OK thank you. Heck I can even see the steps in the shallower end in the distance, although I’m not yet ready to completely move into that lack of depth just yet…maybe.
Back to the book and the class. Both were a bit of building the plane while flying it, but with the help and advice of people who had done the work before me, I figured out a way to make both work. The advice came from people like my Fordham classmate Carlo DeVito, who, as an exec in the publishing world and an accomplished author himself, told me to start a blog to keep the content fresh, because as soon as you turn in the book some of it becomes dated. It also came from my friends at Columbia, who almost ten years ago let myself and my colleague Tom Richardson go one step further and start a podcast which is still going strong today, and which we believe is the second-longest sports business podcast out there. Check em out here.
The book actually became a compendium of best practices others to me by others, and became the framework not just for my grad class at Columbia over the years, but for classes I have done with The School of the New York Times, Fordham, The Learning Annex and a few other spots, as well as being a resource for countless other programs at schools across the country and around the world, where storytelling is not just an add-on today, it is a necessity.
Fast forward to where we are today, 2025. The fourth edition of the book arrived with the dawn of the New Year, and in going back through it, wow the changes that have come up since the last edition, which came out just before the Pandemic. The last book still talked about “new media,” and fax machines, and Blackberry, and this emerging phenomenon of women’s sports. Zoom? Nope. Gaming? A little. Pickleball? Forget it. Artificial Intelligence? Nope. International growth in business. Sure, but nowhere near where we are today. There are sports and properties which are mainstream how which didn’t enter the landscape then, things we thought were growing that went away, and so many new stories to celebrate with the tools we have.
It is all updated with a fresh look at topics and best practices in everything from functional areas such as digital and social media strategy, crisis management, creative writing, the value of audio storytelling, and the role of communications in business. The new edition includes more international and diverse case studies, interviews, and best practices, reflecting on how the sport communications business has become more integrated since 2017 and considering lessons learned through and after the COVID-19 pandemic. It also includes expanded coverage of cause marketing, athletes as brands, social media, multicultural media relations, gaming, and brand integration.
It took a village again to pull together, and I am forever grateful for the friends who chopped in to freshen it up…especially Terry Lyons, Frank Brown and Tanner Simkins. There are over 50 stories on how people got started in our industry, and advice from everyone from media executives to commissioners to people whose expertise and smarts goes way beyond anything I have seen or learned. There are also updated sections on the legends of our industry, our own “Haul of Fame” so to speak, and amazing stories on problem solving, creative promotions, and business success from properties ranging from Drone Racing, the PBR and Cornhole to Cricket, the WNBA, the NFL, The Premier League and colleges and events large and small. And many of those best practice blog posts are there too, so my friend Carlo was right…the constant updates keep paying off.
The one funny thing that came in as we finished the book in October was the reminder that we have to be constant learners. BlueSky, Power Slap, and some other emerging platforms and properties missed, the cut, but we did sneak in lessons learned from Jake Paul and the Pop Tarts Bowl.
For those in the industry, we hope you find this latest edition useful and worthwhile. The price isn’t set by me, but yes there are review copies available from the publisher and there is a digital version and some previews available on the site.
Lastly, in addition to my collaborators and updaters, I want to again thank my family, and Meredith, John, Carlo and David, for the shove to get this all going back in the day. While I still wake up every week wondering what lies ahead, when I look back all I see is fun and amazing people, and I hope the future will bring the same.
Here is the link to the website again, we hope you find the book worthwhile. Keep the ideas coming, and thanks for having me along for the ride.
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