Penguins, Pirates, Steelers and Tigers: LSU Alumnus Brings Purple and Gold Spirit to Pittsburgh Journalism Career

07/23/2020
BATON ROUGE – Ever since he was a little kid, LSU graduate and Lafayette-native Tyler Batiste has loved sports. Today, he is responsible for delivering sports news as the assistant managing editor of sports for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. But his journalism work has focused on more than just sports, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I think it really put into perspective how unimportant and important sports are at the same time. There are obviously much more important issues in the world, but without the escape and entertainment that sports regularly provides, there was a void in a lot of people's lives, both professionally and personally,” Batiste said. “A lot of my staff, along with myself, tried our best to pitch in where we could in other aspects of our news operation, and that's been a fun challenge for us all, but where we thrive and what we love is sports, for better or worse.”

Batiste’s career began with his involvement with LSU student media.

"I worked at KLSU for a couple of semesters, doing the news and sports breaks which would air after the hour. Then I started at the Daily Reveille the summer after my freshman year in 2006. I worked there until I graduated. I was a news writer, sports writer, sports editor. I was editor-in-chief in the summer of 2008, and I was also managing editor,” Batiste said. “I think I was only the third African American editor-in-chief of The Reveille. Obviously some of my closest friends to this day are folks that I met through student media. It was a really big part of my life.”

As a student in the Manship School of Mass Communication, Batiste attended a panel where he introduced himself to one of the speakers: the executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. That introduction would lead to an internship with the publication, while he was still a student.

“Seven years later after that, they were looking for talent and they noticed I had previously interned there. Another editor reached out, and I ended up back where it started. But that was my only internship – where I am working right now,” Batiste said.

Batiste graduated from LSU in 2009. But before he moved to Pittsburgh, Batiste’s professional career started in in Louisiana.

“My first job was in Houma, Louisiana, for the newspaper there, the Houma Courier, as well as The Daily Comet, which is the newspaper in Thibodaux. It is basically the same staff putting together two different newspapers. I started there as a copy editor and page designer. Then after four or five months, I was promoted to the copy desk chief position, where I was overseeing the design and copy editing operations for both of the newspapers,” Batiste said. “The staff was only four people, but it was a lot of responsibility for someone who was only 22. I am glad my editors gave me that opportunity and entrusted me with running that show.”

Then in early 2012, he was hired as the assistant sports editor for the News Journal in Wilmington, Delaware, where he oversaw the sports operation at night.

“I was number two of the department, and I really got lucky that someone wanted to bring me on and help them run a sports department,” Batiste said. “Being only 30 minutes from Philadelphia, we covered the Philadelphia professional teams. You learned how to be part of a big market. It was a really good place to learn.”

Finally in 2014, Pittsburgh called, where he became a digital news editor for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s website, before moving back to sports.

“Ten years ago, you saw that the industry was moving more toward the digital landscape, so I wanted to eventually get away from being just a print-based journalist. Coming out of college, there’s not a lot of sports writing jobs, so you have to have that conversation with yourself: do you want to wait for however long it might be to get the sports writing opportunity or do you want to diversify your capabilities and your skill sets and get a journalism job doing something else? Maybe on the production side of things?” Batiste said he asked himself. “Then hopefully you can figure out what you like or what you don’t like, and maybe get your way back into sports, or whatever the case might be. And I did that twice. I got out of sports for a little awhile and eventually found my way back into it. It’s been a blessing, so to speak.”

At the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Batiste has been running that sports department for the last two years.

“Sports really drives a lot of the conversation here in Pittsburgh,” Batiste said. “But it’s really a small town feel; people are very proud to be from Pittsburgh. It’s fun to be able to work with a staff that realizes that and tries to drive that conversation and provide the level of coverage that people who care as much as fans do here, deserve and appreciate. It can be stressful at times, but it’s what you sign up for.”

 

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Contact Rachel Holland
LSU Media Relations
rachelsp@lsu.edu