School to Career - New York Knicks - VP, Media Relations



	The VP, Media Relations handles the many requests from newspaper, radio and television reporters to interview the players and coaches of the New York Knicks. Not unlike preparing for a test, the Director of Media Relations also helps players and coaches prepare for the interviews by supplying them with information that they need to study prior to being interviewed. This way they are well-informed. Jonathan Supranowitz handles this busy job for the Knicks. He fields requests everyday from numerous media outlets and sets up a schedule for interviews. While many people in this field have college degrees in communications or public relations, Jonathan graduated college with a degree in mathematics from Brooklyn College. Therefore, he had to learn all about handling media relations while working at the various jobs he held prior to working for the Knicks. Communication Is The Key Jonathan excels at being able to communicate effectively both verbally and through his writing. "If you can't get your point across clearly, no one will listen to you," says Jonathan, who also points out the importance of learning about the business. "No matter whom you work for, you need to know about the business you are in. I work for a basketball team, so I know a lot about basketball. If you work for a movie production company, you need to know about the movie business," explains Jonathan, who is familiar with putting in long hours, seven days a week during the basketball season. It's also important to get along with all different types of people to be successful at this type of job. "You meet so many different kinds of people from all over the country," adds Jonathan. "I deal with young people, old people, happy people, angry people. You have to try to get along with everyone." From Patrick to The Hornets Jonathan credits the great play of former Knicks' star Patrick Ewing with getting him interested in basketball. Having made the decision to have a career in the field of professional sports, he started by managing his high school basketball team and then took low paying jobs, like working for a minor league basketball team and for a non-profit organization that staged basketball tournaments and clinics. He also did an internship with the New Jersey Nets and later took a job writing for New York Newsday. It was landing a job with the Charlotte Hornets (now the New Orleans Hornets) that introduced Jonathan to the field of media relations. From there it was on to the New York Knicks. For anyone pursuing a career in sports media relations, Jonathan suggest staying in school, working and studying hard and trying to soak up as much information as possible about the sports that interest you and about how the media works.