A Peek Into the Industry: An Interview with AJC Writer Doug Roberson
- Ronni Cassell '25
- Apr 18
- 9 min read
On April 12, 2025, eight Oglethorpe University students had the opportunity to attend an Atlanta United soccer game and work alongside journalists and media professionals from inside the press box.
For my project, I had the unique chance to interview Doug Roberson, a longtime sportswriter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution who covers Atlanta United and Major League Soccer.
While we walked around the press box with awe and excitement, Roberson appeared at ease. He leaned casually against the wall, sipping from a paper cup without a lid.
I pulled him aside for a nearly 30-minute conversation about his career in journalism and how the industry has evolved over the two decades he’s spent in it.
[This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity]
Cassell: Where are you from? Where did you attend school? Did you grow up playing any sports?
Roberson: I grew up in Mableton, Georgia, near Six Flags. I went to Pebblebrook High School. Attended Oglethorpe during my freshman and sophomore years. In my sophomore year, I lived in Trustee dorm. Is that still a dorm?
No, they tore it down.
Well, I wrote one article for the student paper, and then I transferred to the University of Georgia for journalism. Then, I just started working for small papers around the South, working my way up until I was able to come back home in 2007. I was a college sports and golf editor then. Later, the AJC went through a reorganization, and every assistant editor position was terminated, and I became a reporter again.
I’ve covered everything from Georgia Tech to Georgia State, Kennesaw State University, and a lot of the annual events that come to town, like the Chick-fil-A kickoff games and the Peachtree Road Race. I grew up playing soccer. And when soccer in Atlanta got big, my boss at the time said, ‘Get on this full time,’ and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since. I’ve covered hundreds of soccer matches.
I saw that you wrote for The Red & Black at UGA. How crucial was student journalism to advancing your career?
It’s huge. You gotta have clips. You can’t apply for a job as a professional and not have some experience with what you’re doing. I had the one clip from the Oglethorpe paper and some from The Red & Black.
After you graduated, what did finding a job look like for you? Did you find it easy?
No, no, it was hard. It was a recession. It was 1992. I actually went to work at a temp agency that had me delivering parts for a warehouse. I had resumes out, dozens of resumes out at all these places around the south, and somehow, I ended up at a very small paper in North Carolina that needed somebody to cover high schools. I went there and I wrote and wrote and wrote. We did paste-up back then for the newspaper, which is when you print the articles out on long film, cut them, put them on a board, and take the board to the camera. The camera would shoot it, turn it into a plate, put the plate on the press, and boom. That’s how long ago this was.
What was the moment that made you feel like this was the right fit or that this was the right path for you?
At The Red & Black, there was an advisor who had written at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and some other places, and he would do a weekly critique of the paper. There was an article that I had written, and he had said it was very nicely done and that ‘we need to see more from Doug.’ That made me feel good.
You mentioned earlier that you played soccer. Did you always want to cover sports, or is that where your career naturally led itself?
No, it’s kinda what I always wanted to do. I was at a news copy desk for a bit in Greensboro, North Carolina. I was doing page design and copy editing, but that was only for a year before I was back in sports.
In what ways is sports journalism different from traditional news?
It’s longer hours. It’s more weekends. It's much more deadline intensive.
What is the turnaround time for an article on a game like today?
I’ll have a story written and sent for editing at the final whistle from today’s game. It’ll be done– well, that version of it. Then I’ll go down to the coach’s press conference and the locker room to talk to players. Then, I come back and add quotes and context into the story. And then I’ll write two more stories tomorrow off of this.
When reporting on the same topic for so long, how do you keep the articles fresh? Does it get boring?
It’s not that I get bored, but for the past five years, this team, it doesn’t matter the manager, it doesn’t matter the players, the results are always the same. So, it’s hard to find new angles. That’s why this year I’ve done a couple of different elements just to keep myself entertained. I do a mid-week stats look, and the post-game stats look just to try to come up with something different and new, to keep people engaged.
Are there any challenges that you’re currently facing in sports journalism?
Access is more and more limited and difficult. Atlanta United does a good job, but during the week, we’ll get three players and a manager, and from that, I have to write four or five stories. And it’s not a very stat-heavy sport that you can immediately make a presumption or make a decision based upon the stats, because it’s such a flowing, contextual game. It’s not like baseball where it’s stop, start, stop, start. Same with football. So, what may be obvious when you first watch it– when you go back and watch it, you’ll see that ‘this’ happened because of ‘that’ five seconds before. But it’s fun. I still enjoy it.
What influenced your decision to go back and achieve your master's degree?
When a reorganization of the AJC happened in 2009, I was looking around the newsroom, thinking, ‘if we end up having layoffs, I am going to be competing against a lot of these people for the same jobs, and I am not going to win that competition.’ I needed another skillset. So, I went back to Georgia State University and got my MBA.
Would you say that obtaining your master’s degree is a necessary step to advancing and maintaining a journalism career?
No.
You did it solely for job security?
Yeah, and you know, I’ve got two kids. They’re both adults now, but at the time, I was like, 'I gotta take care of them.'
How have you stayed passionate for so long?
It’s a job, but it’s not a job. I don’t have to go to an office. I don’t work nine to five. I work when I work from wherever I can get Wi-Fi and power. And there’s always something new. Like, on Monday, the president of FIFA is coming to town, and we’ll get to talk to him for a few minutes. When this season ends, I’ll pitch in and help cover some Braves playoff games. I wrote the game story for the national championship of college football last year.
If you had to name the single most important skill for journalism, what would that be?
The ability to think clearly so that you can put those thoughts on paper. If you panic or don’t know what you’re trying to say, you won’t be able to [write] it later.
What role has technology played in changing how you report?
There’s an immediacy to everything now. When I first started, the paper was the next afternoon at that time, so you had hours to write and report, and now you can take that time if you want to, and some people do, but in this race to be first that has taken over media, you really can’t take all the time that you probably should to get all the context and background. That, combined with the rise of bloggers being treated as professional media, is also an issue. Not denigrating what they do, but they have other jobs. This is kind of a sideline for some of them, not all of them, yet they’ll get 95 percent of the same access that I get, and this is all I do. That can be frustrating at times. Some of them are very, very good, but some try to be first, and they get it wrong, and then you have to refute that. It's wasted energy.
Do you think the rise in digital journalism, similarly to what you mentioned with bloggers, negatively impacts what you do? Does it make your job more challenging?
Only if you let it. I am comfortable and confident enough in this beat that I don't chase every little thing out there. I know what’s true and what’s not true. If I think it might be true, then I get to work.
Has the increase in technology made your job easier?
In some ways. I don’t have to transcribe tape anymore, which is a godsend because that is the biggest time sucker on the job is having to transcribe. That’s nice. Being able to write on a screen and not have to cut it out and glue it. That’s nice. But the downside is what we’ve already talked about– the immediacy.
What elements are needed for a great sports story?
There’s has to be some sort of conflict. There needs to be something at stake. This is a regular-season game that we’re watching today. Not a lot at stake, but there’s some conflict. Atlanta United keeps making mistakes on defense that keep costing points. The offense can’t seem to find a consistent gear. That’s some of the talking points that I’ll hit on. New England doesn’t score at all, so if Atlanta United gives up a goal, how are they going to react? Because they should not give up a goal in this game, but they’re likely going to because that’s what they do.
Do you think sports journalism has become less important now that sports commentary is so prevalent online?
Do you know why sports commentary is so prevalent online?
Why?
Because there are fewer sports reporters, they have to fill the screen and the time with the opinions of people like Stephen A. Smith, whose opinion is no more important than yours or mine. If you look at ESPN’s website, you’ll see 10 different examples of what Stephen A. or Pat McAfee says because ESPN has laid off a lot of reporters, so they don’t have actual news analysis and beat writers who can provide useful information, and not just opinion.
Has social media made your job easier or worse?
Both. It’s one more thing I have to do and pay attention to. It’s a great way to connect with readers. I can get a better sense of what readers are looking for based upon what they say in emails or what they post, but at the same time, it can also drive you crazy, because some of that stuff on there is just irrelevant or has been covered a thousand times but they don’t read the stories so they’re posting the same stuff over and over again.
The AJC requires a subscription to access and read online. Does that make news less accessible?
They’re not going to have news if there’s no subscription model. You have to pay the journalists, the photographers, the editors, and all the people inside the building. Advertising revenue, circulation revenue, social media revenue, subscription revenue, it has to come in.
I believe one of the worst business decisions ever made was newspapers deciding at the very beginning that they would be offered for free. It should never have been free to begin with it. It created an expectation that it would be free forever. Now, newspapers all around the world are trying to figure out how to capture the same amount of revenue that was used back then.
Do you think there’s a future for print magazines?
E-editions or digital magazines. I think those kinds of things are the future, especially as technology improves.
Have you ever considered leaving journalism and entering a different career field?
I think everybody daydreams about what the next fun thing is. So, I’ve daydreamed about it, but I’ve never actually pursued it.
What made you stay in this field?
I still love what I do. It’s like with any job, some things make you happy, some things make you mad, but as a whole, I still enjoy it. It’s rewarding.
Would you recommend this as a career?
It depends on your life goals. If your life goals are to have what you consider a ‘normal’ life where you work Monday through Friday and have weekends off, I probably wouldn’t recommend this. If you want to buy a lake house or a mountain house or vacation in Europe every year, I probably wouldn’t recommend this. But if it’s your passion, then pursue it. Pursue it as fervently as you can.
What are you excited about in the future?
The Club World Cup is coming [to Atlanta] this summer. It’ll be fun to see some different teams. The World Cup is coming next year, that’ll be a lot of fun. I’ve never covered a World Cup. The Women’s World Cup could be coming in 2031, and then that would probably be it for me. I would probably retire after that.
What advice would you give to student journalists or someone starting out in the field?
Bylines. You have to get clips. To do the job, you have to do the job. Whether you’re at Oglethorpe or at Emory, go to the student paper. Offer to write for free. You have to get bylines.
Is there anything else you want to add about your career as a journalist?
It’s fun. It’s a fun job. You have to understand that it’s a different job than most other jobs. The only people who work goofier hours than sports journalists are sports communications workers.
We don’t get free tickets to games. That’s the first thing everyone always asks. It’s illegal.
It’s just a fun gig. I enjoy it and I hope to keep enjoying it. Just write, write, write.
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