Media Games

"There was one night at the Athens Olympics," recalls NZPA News Editor Kevin Norquay, when asked about the stresses of Games reporting. "I was covering an equestrian final. It was after midnight by the time the last New Zealand rider got in the ring. When he finished, I had to write stories for the evening and the morning papers [back in New Zealand]. I ended up getting to bed at 4.30am. Then the canoeists were starting at 8am on the other side of the city, so I was up at 5.15am".

Through the two weeks of the Games, 16-hour days are typical - and some are even longer. Not that he's complaining: "You can keep going because it's so exciting. There's always drama going on. You can be absolutely knackered and exhausted, and still get up with a degree of excitement."

"But by the last week you're dragging yourself along," Norquay admits. "You're always doing something. Even when there's not an event going on, you're doing previews or backgrounders, or planning what's coming up."

As in Athens, Beijing sees Norquay leading an NZPA team of five, concentrating on events where New Zealanders are competing. Reports are supplied to 23 daily newspapers, three Sunday papers, TV3, Radio Live, Stuff, Yahoo Xtra, New Zealand Herald web site and Telstra Clear.

NZPA reports are also sent to Australia, and can be picked up globally. "That depends on what happens," explains Norquay. "Say if Nick Willis were to win, stuff we'd written about him and the reaction in the New Zealand camp could get picked up [by global media]. It's not so much the actual competition stuff that gets used, because everyone has access to that. It's the quirky stuff - the stories around the edges."

Take Athens again. Norquay submitted a piece from about equestrian rider Heelan Tompkins chatting over an Athletes Village meal with a Swiss athlete with who simply introduced himself as "Roger". Roger was a certain tennis player, and Heelan didn't realise who he was until she'd asked him what sport he played. The story was picked up in numerous countries – Federer made it global news.

At the Games, NZPA has a partnership with US newswire agency Associated Press. NZPA has a small corner of the massive Associated Press news room as their Games "office". There's internet access and a closed circuit television screen with latest results – but no frills.

Even so, it's a cut above the media "Bullring" - rows of blank desks and television screens where reporters from around the world sit down with their laptops and write.

Kevin Norquay.

There will actually be more people working for news services than athletes in Beijing, while for New Zealand the ratio will be about one to one. According to Ashley Abbott of NZOC, which handles media accreditation, New Zealand has 24 print journalists at Beijing, while TVNZ will have more than 100 staff at the Games, many doing behind the scenes work.

Altogether, with TV3 staff, and radio journalists from Radio New Zealand, the Radio Network and Radio Live, there will be approximately 200 New Zealand media personnel in Beijing.

Norquay says it's interesting to witness different media styles. Reporters from some countries can be "very cruel" in questioning their athletes, he says. "In New Zealand, there's an edginess between journalists and athletes but if an athlete fails, we're more likely to be sympathetic. We don't set out to be mean-minded or overly critical. With the English tabloids, it's like [the athlete]being locked up in a room with a pit bull terrier."

As for the athletes, there's a special Olympic media village (accommodation has to be paid for). Reporters can use free transport between Games venues, and get events passes. "In the swimming and athletics, you actually get the best seats in the house, lined up with the finish line," Norquay enthuses.

There's also access to the "mixed zone", an area where media can catch athletes as they leave the venue after their competition is over. And media conferences are held throughout the day, straight after finals. But these are conducted in several languages so if there's a New Zealander involved, "you'll try and get hold of them later. Generally our interviews are conducted away from [the conferences]."

Technology is a central part of the modern Games reporter's life – as Norquay describes. "I might be at the swimming. I'll write a couple of paragraphs and send it back to NZPA in New Zealand, from where I'm sitting. At the same time, I'll have the Olympic website up on screen for results. And I'll be watching the closed circuit television. You can multi-task, that's what technology allows you to do."

Mobile technology enables more flexible planning. "You used to have to plan everything at the start of the day and you couldn't change those plans – whereas now you can respond to sudden unplanned events."

It's also easier for the news team to work together as a fast and efficient unit. For example, at Athens, Norquay watched the triathlon at the news room headquarters on closed circuit television. After the race, he wrote a quick early report, while two NZPA reporters at the venue interviewed Hamish Carter and Bevan Docherty – with those interviews built into the story later.

As recently as the 1980s, a reporter would phone up their newspaper and read their article out, word-by-word, to a copy taker – who typed it up for publication. Just like the levels of athletic competition, the Games never stand still.

Kevin Norquay started his reporting career with The Dominion in Wellington in the mid-1980s, covering hockey, track and field and rugby league. Over the years, he's worked for The Listener, Sunday News and Marlborough Express, covering sport, parliamentary and general news. The 1990 Commonwealth Games were his first major Games. He played representative rugby for the Hamilton sub-union, ran cross-country for Wellington and completed 11 marathons, with a best of 2hr 38min.

He has been with NZPA for 11 years – the last four as News Editor. NZPA was set up in 1879 and is the country's largest national news agency, supplying a 24-hour national and international news service. The newsroom sends out about 1000 different pieces of information every 24 hours, compiled from the news resources of its own staff, the daily newspapers, overseas wire services and other sources like the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

Updated | 31 Oct 2008.

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