Editor of Leeds-based Football365 celebrates 25 years

Sarah Winterburn, Editor of Planet Sport Group’s longest-standing football title Football365, reflects on her 25-year tenure.

Sarah Winterburn has spent an impressive 25 years at the renowned Leeds-based football media title, Football365.

Belonging to Planet Sport Group, the UK independent sports media publisher, Football365 has been covering the game with a forthright attitude since 1997.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Having led the title as Editor since 2002, Sarah reflects on her journey, discussing the industry's evolution and her role as one of the first women in football journalism.

Sarah Winterburn celebrates 25 years at Football365Sarah Winterburn celebrates 25 years at Football365
Sarah Winterburn celebrates 25 years at Football365

Sarah, 25 years at Football365. How do you feel about achieving a remarkable work milestone that very few other people achieve these days?

It’s flown by. It doesn't feel like 25 years. It's been almost all my working career, and that is incredibly unusual. It's particularly unusual in this industry, but unusual in general. It's like something from the Victorian times.

I've done 25 years in three different cities, working in seven or eight different offices under various management styles, so it's never been the same. It's always been a little bit different; it’s always been evolving, and I've never got bored. 25 years never got bored. It's not bad, is it?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

I think I've read somewhere that you were one of the first women in football journalism, is that true?

Oh, very much so. Way back when I started, women in football journalism at all were very rare. I had a lot of difficult, awkward conversations - we're talking nearly 30 years ago. I don't know of any other woman who's edited a football website for 10 minutes, never mind 25 years. So, it's quite an achievement, I think, and hopefully a few people see it and think that they can do it too.

What moments stand out to you from your illustrious career at Football365?

The good moments, we've won awards, they've been great. We've always worked in this ‘small’ way. We've always had a small team and yet we go head-to-head with some of the biggest. So, when we've won awards, or won any kind of recognition from outside, that's always been brilliant.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Then there's the other things: people who've called me up very annoyed about what we said - around hour long conversations with Robbie Savage, for example, which was great fun. I've had various newspaper journalists ring me up annoyed. I think we're doing something right if we're annoying people, to be honest.

You know the sports publishing industry inside out, how different is it to when you started your career?

20 to 25 years ago you had no information. You didn't know how many people were looking at anything, you didn't have traffic numbers, you certainly didn't know where they were coming from, no one had heard of SEO. This is how it was: you wrote some words, they went on a page, and then some people might look at it, and some people might not, you never knew how many, as long as you got paid, you thought enough people must!

Fast forward a couple of decades, you've got so much information. You know exactly where every single person is coming from, you know their age, what their habits are, what their hobbies are, how long they’re staying on the page, how long you want them to stay on the page; it's so much information. The data around publishing is so great that we're no longer working in this blind spot of just doing our own thing.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It sometimes does take the magic out of it, because you've got to think about who's reading and not just writing about what you want to write, what you find interesting. It's finding that middle ground between what we want to do and what will get people reading.

What advice can you give to people just starting their careers in football media?

The industry has changed massively in the time that I've been in it, that now it's really tricky for young people to get into it. I would say, like everybody else says on this question: do it before you get paid for it, because that's the only way.

If you want to write about football, if you want to make videos about football, then you should already be writing about football and you should already be making videos about football.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

That doesn't mean going and doing lots of work for nothing, though there might be an element of that, but you don't need to wait to get the job to get started. This is the wonderful thing about modern media, on social media you don't have to wait to be paid to do something. Start doing it, start writing about it and find a niche.

I get lots of emails from people looking for work. The only thing that stands out is when people go, I've already done this and this, or I've got a real interest in this particular thing.

There are thousands of people who are out there writing about Premier League football and there’s thousands more making statistical videos about Premier League football. How do you stand out? There's got to be something different. You've all already got to be doing it, or you've already got to have a niche that you know more about than anybody else. It's such a tricky business to get into now, but it's a brilliant business, because football is phenomenal.

Who do you support?

I support Huddersfield Town, the mighty Huddersfield Town!

Related topics:
News you can trust since 1754
Follow us
©National World Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.Cookie SettingsTerms and ConditionsPrivacy notice