A female journalist is to oversee a regional daily’s coverage of two of England’s biggest sports clubs after being appointed its first woman head of football.
Alice McKeegan, pictured left, has taken up the role at the Manchester Evening News.
The move will see Alice spearhead the title’s coverage of Manchester City and Manchester United online and in print.
Alice’s appointment comes a fortnight after the National Council for the Training of Journalists launched a campaign aimed at getting more women to pursue a career in sports journalism.
She said: “I’m delighted to be leading the football desk in one of the most exciting football cities in the world.
“I’m fortunate to be working with a talented team of journalists in the newsroom and look forward to developing our coverage of Manchester United and Manchester City over the next season and beyond.”
Alice joined the title’s parent company MEN Media as a trainee reporter on her local paper the Rochdale Observer in 2007.
She moved to the MEN in 2009 and worked as airport reporter and health correspondent before moving to its news desk in 2013.
Editor-in-chief Rob Irvine said: “Alice is a hugely talented and inspirational leader with a great knowledge of print and digital journalism.
“She has a great passion for, and a great understanding of, football and the demands and interests of United and City fans both in Greater Manchester and further afield.”
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Congratulations Alice – well deserved!
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Is that a handbag over her shoulder?
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I wonder if, in 2016, the gender of the position holder should really be the most important thing here?
#everydaysexism
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Tokenism
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Of course it shouldn’t be the most important issue Luka, but the fact is it is.
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How dare nomoresnappers and Digger make such casual, insulting comments? #everydaysexism
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Just out of interest, does anyone know of a man being in or ever holding a ‘women’s editor’ role on a local paper?
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What I find most interesting is that, in an age when sports news is provided by more and more media outlets than ever before, the regional press is still happy to put money into their sports coverage, while the most important role of the Fourth Estate (keeping the establishment in check, acting on behalf of the people) gets cut to the bone. I’m a massive sports fan, I was a sports journalist, but it seems the priorities are so wrong.
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Get a grip Gaslight, they were hardly insulting comments. I’m sure Alice has heard worse. Good luck to the girl, I mean lady, sorry, woman!
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In my experience, not least because of the every-day sexism that is prevalent still in sports journalism, female football journalists give you that bit extra and tend to be even more talented because they have to overcome barriers their male counterparts don’t.
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Sounds like she has served her time in various roles and will make a splendid job of it, regardless of her sex.
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Well done.
Er, what’s an “airport reporter”?
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We can only live in hope that the day will come when stories like this are committed to the darker days of history.
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Luka – get a grip, it’s a first female appointee to a traditionally male-dominated role, of course it’s the angle. And there’s no need for hashtags in HTFP comments, especially such trite and smug ones.
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Has Alice worked in sport before?
Money going into regional sports coverage is not a trend nationwide, quite the opposite as sports desks are trimmed, but the big cities with the big football clubs are likely to gain the most.
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@roychallis
I disagree, obvs… (that’s shorthand for obviously)
Surely story should be…
THE MEN has appointed a new football ed
Alice takes over the post from blah blah.
She has had a long a glittering career etc etc
last par – and she’s the first woman.
re the #… it’s just how the young people talk innit.
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Scoop. Happy to put money into sports coverage? Not on my local JP paper. Got rid of its sports editor. No sports reporting staff at all. Stuffed with 100 per cent submitted and what looks like unedited or badly edited copy and a layout that would shame a 14-year-old.
Good luck to this young woman.
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‘Is that a handbag over her shoulder?’ ‘Tokenism’. I venture a guess that the above commenters have never stepped foot into a newsroom – and never will – with such ignoramus remarks. She has, clearly, developed in a natural way and must be pretty clued up to have taken on the role.
They would not be making a throwaway appointment when, potentially, the two best managers working in football will be working in Manchester next year.
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Luka – if you’re a journalist, you’re a poor one. That little story you wrote buries what is, whether you like it or not, the most newsworthy angle in the last par for the sake of a bit of enlightened virtue-signalling. Journalists need to live in the real world.
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