Catching Up With Steve Dilbeck
Sports columnist Steve Dilbeck has been with the Daily News for about six years after transferring from the San Bernardino Sun. He works from home and out in the field-- sometimes very far out, as he did covering last summer's Olympic Games in Athens. Known for his broad-ranging, insightful columns, he has one of the paper's most recognizable voices in his award-winning work.
Q. Where did you start at the Daily News?
A. I started as NFL-enterprise-backup beat writer, a kind of jack of all trades thing. I started filling in for Dodgers games then later filling in for columnists. In 2001 they gave me this huge tryout period (as a columnist), then it became permanent a little while after that.
Q. What's your favorite part of the day?
A. Filing.
Q. What's your least favorite part of the job?
A. One of the unfortunate aspects of the job is you never know when you're going to have to work. Somebody will ask if I can go to the kids' game and I never know. I don't know if I'll be covering a game or working from someplace far away. My schedule is somewhat unpredictable.
Q. When did you join the union?
A. February.
Q. Why did you decide to join?
A. I come from a union background. I was a member of the retail clerks union in college when I was working as a box boy at Vons market, then I was a union member again at UPS. I always felt I benefitted greatly from a union.
I have what I believe to be a very desired position at the Daily News. I'm not sure how joining will benefit me, but it can help everyone. I'm hoping it'll have an impact on the rest of the staff.
If you have people who have been around for a long time like I have been, it helps. I don't want to just think “well I got mine” and turn my back on it. I still very much feel like one of the troops.
Q. Why would you encourage others to join?
A. The union at the Daily News is an interesting situation, because you don't have to join. In most places you're either in the union or you don't work. That makes it more difficult here, because it's easy for people to keep their $20 a month and figure, if the union gets me a 2 percent raise, great. It's easy to be selfish. I've been guilty of it for years.
(Q&A conducted by Candice Choi, one of our emeritus members)
Q. Where did you start at the Daily News?
A. I started as NFL-enterprise-backup beat writer, a kind of jack of all trades thing. I started filling in for Dodgers games then later filling in for columnists. In 2001 they gave me this huge tryout period (as a columnist), then it became permanent a little while after that.
Q. What's your favorite part of the day?
A. Filing.
Q. What's your least favorite part of the job?
A. One of the unfortunate aspects of the job is you never know when you're going to have to work. Somebody will ask if I can go to the kids' game and I never know. I don't know if I'll be covering a game or working from someplace far away. My schedule is somewhat unpredictable.
Q. When did you join the union?
A. February.
Q. Why did you decide to join?
A. I come from a union background. I was a member of the retail clerks union in college when I was working as a box boy at Vons market, then I was a union member again at UPS. I always felt I benefitted greatly from a union.
I have what I believe to be a very desired position at the Daily News. I'm not sure how joining will benefit me, but it can help everyone. I'm hoping it'll have an impact on the rest of the staff.
If you have people who have been around for a long time like I have been, it helps. I don't want to just think “well I got mine” and turn my back on it. I still very much feel like one of the troops.
Q. Why would you encourage others to join?
A. The union at the Daily News is an interesting situation, because you don't have to join. In most places you're either in the union or you don't work. That makes it more difficult here, because it's easy for people to keep their $20 a month and figure, if the union gets me a 2 percent raise, great. It's easy to be selfish. I've been guilty of it for years.
(Q&A conducted by Candice Choi, one of our emeritus members)
posted by Oxnard St. at 9:26 PM
1 Comments:
The retail grocery industry lost one of its finest 'box boys' when Steve finally chose sports writing as a career.
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