Mat Kendrick interview

Hints and tips on how to become a successful journalist were given to sports journalism students at Birmingham City University this morning.

The talk by Mat Kendrick, the Sports Football Editor for Birmingham Live, was a simple meet and greet and a way to ask any questions about his past and what to look forward to in the future.

Kendrick spoke about his past and his path to get where he is today. He never started out at a sports journalist. After leaving Wolverhampton University he started work as a news reporter.

This put him out his comfort zone. He talked about the “death knock” he was made to go out and speak to those who were grieving. This was a very uncomfortable experience for him. But it had a huge impact on his future career.

Mat Kendrick said it gave him a tougher skin. “Because of this when I receive harsh comments, it doesn’t affect me,” he said.

“If I was asked to do it again today I still wouldn’t want to do I, but is has helped me become the journalist I am today.”

Then Kendrick went on to speak about the change in technology. Five or six years ago you could write about what you thought the people want to read, rather than what they actually want to read.

This is because technology has advanced and the company is now able to access website statistics. That’s what they base their news stories on today.

As advice he told us “not guessing, but giving,” meaning found out what the public want then write about it, do research and know our audience.

Kendrick has a great history for wanting to write for Aston Villa and become a sports writer.

From a young age he has been a Villa fan, but because of his parents and his religious background he soon realised he would never play for the team.

However, he was exposed to newspapers from the age of eight. This was his only way to know about football and what was going on.

This catapulted his love for writing.

We thought that being a Villa supporter would be hard for him as you tend to side with your preferred team. However, it is possible.

He said: “I look at all teams equally and I write to the audience instead of my own preference.” By doing this it created more clicks and more readers.