A managing case study from Mike Stephenson's time as an editor at the Tampa Bay Times

1. Mike Stephenson
(727) 422-4714 ​mike.stephenson.33609@gmail.com​ linkedin.com/in/mike-stephenson
A MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY: GET ME REWRITE
The goal
The phone call started unexpectedly: “How interested are you in Warren Sapp
being bitten by a shark?” My response: “Is that true? If so, we should write that.”
The reporter had spotted on social media that Sapp, a controversial Hall of Fame
football player who had helped the Tampa Bay Buccaneers win the Super Bowl,
had been bitten by a shark in South Florida. It was sure to be a hit online and in
print. We just had to pin down the information and tell it well.
Strategy, tactics and execution
Normally the editing process has give and take with the editor making suggestions
and the writer sometimes recasting them. But occasionally the nature of the
information and the collaboration involved results in the editor doing a quick
rewrite. In this case, the initial reporter confirmed the information and got
comments from the charterboat captain. But Sapp declined to talk to that reporter,
and the result was a blog post that had the facts but was a bit flat:
BEFORE VERSION:
Former Bucs defensive tackle Warren Sapp, a regular on charter fishing trips in his
retirement these days, was bitten in the arm by a shark while lobstering on a charter based
out of Marathon in the Florida Keys.
"It's simple," charter captain Jack Carlson wrote via text message while still cleaning up
Wednesday afternoon. "He was lobstering with me and a shark bit Sapp while he was
grabbing the lobster. He's OK."
Carlson's charter, Two Conchs,​ posted a photo to Instagram​ with a photo of a deep, bloody
gash to Sapp's arm. "Warren Sapp attacked by a shark while lobstering," he wrote, adding
the hashtag #epicbattle. "The shark wanted the lobster just as bad as Sapp," he later wrote
on Instagram. "Sapp got the lobster and the Shark got his lick in too."

2. Carlson said by phone he was fishing on Florida Bay on Wednesday, about seven miles out
from Marathon in 9 feet of water. Sapp was reaching for a lobster that a shark -- one
witness thought it was a small nurse shark, perhaps four feet long -- also wanted.
"The sharks hang around those lobster holes, because they feed on the lobster as well,"
Carlson said.
Carlson said Sapp "may need stitches" for the injury -- to the inside of his left forearm,
near the elbow -- but that he kept fishing. "We bandaged it up, put some gauze on there,
some black electrical tape and hit a couple more spots, then headed in," Carlson said.
Sapp, now a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Bucs' Ring of Honor, posted
a photo on Instagram earlier Wednesday showing him going out lobstering with Two
Conchs and Carlson. He spoke briefly with the Times by phone Wednesday before abruptly
hanging up.
But one of our sports columnists was able to reach Sapp and get him to talk. The
columnist fed me the quotes, and I did a quick rewrite, running it past the original
reporter before posting it to the website and scheduling it for print publication.
AFTER VERSION:
Warren Sapp likes to fish, but Wednesday he learned what the bait feels like.
The retired Bucs defensive tackle, a regular on South Florida’s Two Conchs charter boat,
was bitten in the left arm by a shark while diving for lobster out of Marathon in the Florida
Keys.
“I was sticking my hand in a hole and a monster locked on me,” Sapp said. “You’ve got to
be careful sticking your hand in some holes down here.
“It went past the white meat, up to the gristle.”
Sapp, 43, was out with charter captain Jack Carlson on Florida Bay, about 7 miles out from
Marathon in 9 feet of water. Carlson said those on the excursion thought Sapp encountered
a nurse shark, about 4 feet long.

3. “The shark wanted the lobster just as bad as Sapp,” Carlson wrote on Instagram with a
photo of a gash in Sapp’s arm and the hashtag #epicbattle. “Sapp got the lobster and the
Shark got his lick in too.”
Sapp said the crew wrapped his arm in duct tape and the expedition continued. He was told
it might take four stitches.
“He lit me up,” Sapp said. “He got me all the way through the shirt. If the shirt had been a
little further down, it might have protected me.”
Sapp said he would be fine.
“It was me and the shark, one on one,” he said. “Then he put those razor sharp teeth in me
and I knew who was the boss. Holy smokes. I snapped my arm, spit the respirator out and
went for the surface.”
The results
The Sapp story did indeed do well online with nearly 100,000 page views and
captured attention in the print edition. The next day the sports columnist stopped
by my desk and mentioned the opening paragraph in the final version. “Did you
write that lead? I had two or three people compliment me on it before I told them,
‘I think my editor wrote that.’”