Peter Brewington is the sports editor of the Fauquier Times-Democrat, a small weekly paper based in Warrenton, Virginia. With a circulation of just 22,000, the paper is much smaller than Brewington’s previous employer, USA TODAY. His job includes covering local high schools, middle schools and recreational sports in Fauquier County.

Q: When did you realize you wanted to be a reporter or a writer?
A: I knew way back in high school. I attended Bethesda-Chevy Chase High in Bethesda, Md., and we had a really good journalism program. There were two Journalism classes (Journalism I and II) and an award-winning paper called the Tattler that tons of kids wanted to work for. I was always into sports and chose sports writing. But it was so competitive that I couldn't even make sports editor in high school. I was associate sports editor.

Did you go to college?
I went to American University in Washington, D.C., and double majored in political science and communications (with a print journalism track).

Did you take journalism classes or do a journalism internship while in
college?
I always knew I wanted to go into print journalism, so I made sure I had that covered in the classwork, but also chose a double major to be versatile. It did take me five years to finish though -- but they were great years. I made sports editor of the college paper by my fifth year, and we had a great basketball team to cover.

I had a number of internships, but most were in politics. I worked for a congressman, and the White House (through an inside connection) and a movie company.

What was your first job out of college?
I worked part-time for The Washington Post sports department. They gave me about two stories a week covering high school and local colleges, and a few hours in the office. I also had a job at a country radio station, WMZQ-FM, helping them write radio news copy. That job was four hours every morning from 5 to 9 a.m. Brutal hours but they paid me for 20 hours a week, so I had two part-time jobs that filled my time.

While at USA Today, did you cover sports? If not, what? Have you ever been
able to interview a big name pro or college athlete? Did you prefer that to
interviewing lesser known high school athletes?

I started at USA TODAY as a news assistant in the Sports Department, and my full-time job was to mostly work nights helping with baseball box scores, and devise charts. I did not get many bylines, but four or five years later I finally got promoted to reporter.

I interviewed tons of big name athletes over the years, from Mia Hamm to Bill Walsh to Darrell Green. Those are just a few names I can think of real quick. I covered two Olympics, 1992 in Barcelona and 2002 in Sydney. Unbelievable times!

Do you prefer working at a smaller paper versus a big one (USA TODAY vs. Fauquier Times-Democrat)? What are some of the positives and negatives between the two?

Great question. I wrestle with that now that I'm at a smaller place. The pressures at USA TODAY were extremely difficult. The paper went through a time when everyone was under great pressure to perform, and it was often unpleasant. That said, I really miss the travel I did and the notoriety that came from having your name printed 2 million times a day whenever you did a story.

The places I went and work I did made it possible to look back on those days with great pride.

However, the freedom and enjoyment I get from running my own small weekly section makes my current job so pleasurable. I run my own ship, right down to the critical design and layout, which is really fun. The hours are flexible, the low key work setting is ideal for me, and I can still go to games which I love, and do plenty of writing, which I enjoy.

It should also be noted I get paid a lot less, but I honestly prefer my current lifestyle. 

Writing for such a small area, it's easy to become familiar and friendly with
players, coaches or teams.  Do you end up rooting for one team over another in
a game, say Highland School over Wakefield School?  Do you think it could affect your writing in a positive or negative manner?

The only time I really root is when I want a local team to beat a non-local team. Sometimes when things are slow, I want a team to advance to a playoff game or something to give us more to write about.

I've been in the business too long to really have it affect my writing. But I will say that you do have to add a little life to your writing when you are catering to a local audience. By that I mean you give your coverage of local teams a little "attitude" or perhaps a slight bias at times. You don't inject editorial comment into it, but there are ways to get a little more personality into coverage of local teams to encourage your readers.

If you do indeed write the story from the hometown angle, do you believe that is ok despite journalistic values that state the reporter should be completely
objective?

You can still be objective in describing the action, but since your readership is only interested in the local team you want to appeal to them as much as possible. Your goal is to write a fun accurate story that focuses more on the local team.

You have had reporters who played on local sports teams, then wrote a story about the game for your sports section. Looking back, do you think I was ethically correct in being on a Highland team and then writing about our games?

It's not ideal. You seemed to pull it off by writing in a very detached manner. Another way to tackle that could have been by writing it in first person, where there is no hiding who you are and the fact that you played on that team. But the stories you did were more what I needed at the time: straight news reporting on a big game. As I said, having it done by someone on the team is never done at big papers. This happened to be one of those concessions we have to make at papers with limited resources. And frankly, your inside knowledge made it a better story. So I thought it worked out well.

What is the most rewarding part of covering sports?
I just love the lifestyle. I enjoy watching live sports and I enjoy writing. There is a freedom and variety in being a journalist, and that is all I ever want to do.

For a while I thought of making a mid-career change and going into teaching, but I have now realized that does not seem that fun, and have no interest.  

What is the toughest challenge journalists are faced with today?
Getting ahead in a tough field. It's not easy to find work and even when you do it's hard to move up. You have to be very talented and dedicated to make it. And you have to be persistent.

What advice would you give to someone trying to break into the business?

The first goal is to really hang in there and be convinced you are good enough to make it. That way, you will keep working to find a niche for yourself. I always believed in myself, thought I wrote with a little attitude and talent, and never felt I wouldn't make it. Times have changed, however, and in looking back I realize how lucky I was to get in a good situation pretty quick.

I believe I would have made it anyway even if I had not gotten in at USA TODAY at such a young age. You have to climb through the ranks nowadays and it is tough.

I feel happy where I am, even if it is a small paper. I love what I do and love the profession of journalism.