Ben Portnoy has joined The Dispatch staff as the beat reporter for Mississippi State University sports.
He started work earlier this month and will primarily provide comprehensive coverage of Bulldog athletics — from game stories and analysis to profiles, enterprise and other human interest stories.
Portnoy, 22, is a Washington, D.C. native who graduated from the University of Indiana with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. His minors were Spanish and political science.
He’s interned at the Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he covered IU football; with The Sports Capitol website based in Washington, D.C., where he covered professional teams in the area as well as the Major League Baseball All-Star Game; and even spent the spring 2018 semester as a reporter in Seville, Spain.
“As the Mississippi State athletics reporter, I’m confident we can take our Bulldogs coverage to a whole new level,” Portnoy said. “Taking readers beyond the box score with hard-hitting features and content that is more than just game recaps is priority No. 1. The MSU beat is one that so many care about dearly and I want to be the person to bring the stories those folks seek to fruition. Further, in those stories I promise to be fair, objective and dogged in my reporting to ensure that the people of Columbus, Starkville and the surrounding area get the best and most accurate coverage around.”
Managing Editor Zack Plair said Portnoy’s work-ethic and reporting quality stand out on the beat, even in the two weeks since he joined the staff.
“This is a challenging beat to cover well because there is so much going on,” Plair said. “Ben’s accepted that challenge from Day 1, getting on a plane to San Jose, California, to cover the men’s basketball team at the NCAA Tournament before he even got everything moved into his apartment. He puts the work in — whether it’s research, interviews or writing — and it already shows up in the product. I can’t wait to see how good he becomes over time.”
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