Miles Addy and Jordan Macauley were both winners at the SJA British Sports Journalism Awards earlier in 2025, recognising their talents as sports content creators; they took part in a special News Associates Q&A for SJA Academy members; here, Plamedi Mbungu shares top takeaways from the session…
SJA British Sports Journalism Award winners Miles Addy, founder of The Content Club, and Jordan Macauley, founder of The Long Play, spoke to SJA Academy members about becoming successful sports content creators.
Miles won Content Creator of the Year at the SJAs ceremony in March, and The Content Club was shortlisted in the Content Agency category.
Jordan won YouTube Newcomer, with The Long Play taking silver in the YouTube Show category.
The pair candidly shared insights into their initial struggles breaking into the industry, their successes, and aspirations for the future, igniting a spark in everyone on the call.
News Associates podcast host Plamedi Mbungu shares what he learnt from the online event...
Breaking into the industry
Hearing Miles and Jordan’s pathways into sports journalism highlighted that there is no one route into the industry.
Miles spoke from the perspective of a broadcast journalism graduate and emphasised the importance of self-sufficiency as a content creator.
Miles said: “It’s all really come from taking a bit of a leap, as someone who wasn’t very confident in himself after graduating, to now being able to do cool things in my career.
“I feel like if you’re not using social media to at least start building your personal brand, then there’s something wrong there, it’s a good place to build confidence and take a leap.
“I spent some time learning properly how to film and edit, and now I’m able to go to different spaces on my own and create content and that’s how The Content Club came to be.”
Jordan’s route was untraditional but showcased how passion for the content you’re producing can help you consistently create.
Jordan said: “My journey is a little bit more unorthodox than Miles’.
“I didn’t go to journalism school, I didn’t do journalism at university, I didn’t do a journalism degree or course. I’m a nerd, I love money, and I love sport.”
Breakout moments
Miles and Jordan both spoke about their leaps of faith into content creation.
The Long Play started out as a newsletter in 2022 on Substack, breaking down the business behind sport and Jordan decided he needed to create video content to help drive traction to it in 2024.
Jordan said: “The Long Play’s long-form video is where the platform really started to grow.
“I had 300 YouTube subscribers in January 2024 and by the end of the year, I had 18,000 subscribers, considering this is a new venture for me, I thought it was a decent first year.
“But this year, we kind of hit a bit of an uptick and in the first six months of 2025, I’ve grown to over 100,000 subscribers on YouTube which is pretty strong.
“Now I have thousands of subscribers to the newsletter, I just needed to figure out how to drive traffic to it.
“Short-form on Instagram, and TikTok, long-form on YouTube, it’s kind of like the perfect matrix.”
Miles attributes his coverage of the African Cup of Nations as the risk that created new career opportunities.
Miles said: “The Africa Cup of Nations was coming up and being of Ghanaian heritage, it was a tournament that I wanted to attend and cover.
“I financially covered the trip and told myself I’m going to take a risk, and I feel like the best risks are taken when there is something pulling at your heartstrings and for me, it’s the Ghana national team, it’s African football.
“Because I was one of the few covering the tournament, videos started going viral, and my opportunities expanded from that point onwards.”
Advice for starting out
Starting out as a content creator can feel overwhelming, but Miles and Jordan both advised simply getting the content out.
When asked about recommended equipment and software, Miles said you don’t need to have the most expensive equipment, because your phone has nearly all the tools you require.
“I’m big on self-taught so if you don’t know the basics of editing, learn it on your iPhone and use CapCut,” said Miles.
Virality and analytics while starting out can be disheartening, but Jordan reiterates the importance of passion and enjoyment driving your content.
Jordan said: “You need to be comfortable and enjoy creating the content and focus on that rather than the outcomes.”
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