About us
This is not a sports website. It is a website about sports journalism, for sports journalists, and by sports journalists.
When the Sports Journalists’ Association was formed in a pub off Fleet Street in 1948, its founders could not have envisaged how the business would change over the coming decades. And the SJA has endeavoured to adapt and grow to reflect those changes.
Some of the SJA's members hard at work at the Beijing Olympics
This has been especially important in recent years, when the rate of change across our business has been faster than ever before.
The scale of the changes to sport and therefore sports journalism is demonstrated by the transformational work going on in London’s East End. The SJA’s forefathers had to contend with the “Ration Book Olympics” in 1948, with its make-do-and-mend stadiums and an Olympic Village in disused barrack huts.
In 2012, we will be working alongside 10,000 busy colleagues from around the world in an Olympic Park built with a £9.3 billion budget.
The SJA website tries to reflect the changes in our business in its daily news coverage, while also supporting the organisation’s ever-increasing range of activities.
As well as the SJA’s two major awards ceremonies each year – the SJA British Sports Awards, first staged in 1949 and therefore the oldest sports awards in Britain, with the Sportsman, Sportswoman and Team of the Year selected by a vote of SJA members; and our SJA British Sports Journalism Awards, where we recognise excellence in our own profession – the SJA also publishes a comprehensive Yearbook which includes profiles of all members, and which is distributed to everyone within our rapidly growing membership, plus major sports desks and the country’s leading PR agencies.
Rich awards: Michael Atherton accepts the 2009 Sports Writer of the Year prize while still at work covering an England cricket tour
We issue frequent email updates covering the Association’s activities and the latest news in sports journalism.
We offer a range of other services for our members, including legal advice, money-off offers and negotiation over accreditation requirements at home and abroad, together with our internationally recognised membership card.
We also act as consultants to the organisers of major sporting events on media requirements, including providing media liaison for the British Olympic Association at the Olympic Games.
Membership of the SJA embraces all branches of the business, but is still strictly restricted to British-based professional journalists. Membership requirements, and application form, can also be found on this website.
The website is a key communication tool for members and the broader public, attracting an average of 30,000 hits every weekday. In one calendar month in early 2010, more than 1 million people visited sportsjournalists.co.uk.
But like all websites, the SJA’s depends on news and feedback from its members and readers to create debate. Take a look around, and if sports journalism is your business or intended career – we also provide an extensive section of online careers and training advice – then you are sure to find something of use or interest.
And if you don’t, we’re sure you’ll let us know.
