Roxanna Scott Is Now the Leader She Used To Look Up To

In January, Roxanna Scott became Senior Vice President, Editor in Chief at ESPN after 18 years at USA Today and a brief stint at The Athletic. Since then she’s had young women reach out to congratulate her on the new job. It’s fitting because she likely would not be in this position without the women sports editors who came before her. 

After graduating from the University of Iowa, Scott’s first job was at the Dallas Morning News. A couple of editors there encouraged her to become involved with the Association for Women in Sports Media. She first met groundbreaking women in sports journalism through AWSM, including Cathy Henkel, who was the sports editor at The Seattle Times. She met Christine Brennan, the 2020 winner of the Associated Press Sports Editors’ Red Smith award, and Claire Smith, the first (and still only) woman to win the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s Career Excellence Award. 

“These were women who really showed me what leadership looks like. That representation really matters, and they supported me,” Scott said. “They answered my questions, and in some cases they were suggesting me for jobs, and I didn’t even know that, that they became advocates in that way as well, and that made such a difference in my career to be a part of a group with women who were like-minded in being part of sports media and showing me the way in terms of what it looks like to be a leader and how important it is to have women at all levels of our industry.”

Scott described her role at ESPN as a “dream job” as her work includes television for the first time in her storied career. Between digital, TV and radio, all with global reach, ESPN produces perhaps too much material for any one person to consume, but Scott loves it.

“I feel like I'm a news hound at heart, and so I just love the pace of this place, and just the amount of resources we have,” Scott said. “There’s an entire research department, they are up overnight pulling statistics out of the Knicks sweeping the Cavaliers. This morning I'm watching Stephen A. [Smith]’s show First Take, and there’s lots of graphics with that information that they have to sort of put together overnight.”

ESPN is still unique in their presence across platforms, but more and more print newspapers are using video and social media to broaden their presences. 

“Moving toward the future, as you talk about different outlets that are producing video, I think ESPN, and the fact that they've been doing it for so long at this level is a clear advantage here, and just working with such a large staff, and everyone has that sort of spirit of ‘we want to win the day,’” Scott said.

Scott leads that spirit with a curiosity and excitement for her job. She is responsible for leading a massive network and team while geeking out a bit.

“One of the mornings I was here at 5 a.m. to sit in the studio with one of our news editors, who is embedded with the support center in the morning, and so getting to be in the control room with her as she is editing the graphics and talking to the producers about storylines, that was sort of a like ‘pinch me’ moment, because obviously I’ve watched the show for years, but going behind the scenes with her and seeing how they shape the coverage of the news and just being a fly on the wall and getting to see all of that and how the show comes together was definitely something that was really exciting for me being able to learn the TV side of things little by little.” 

Scott has been working towards this job her whole career because of the women who came before her. They encouraged and inspired her, and now she does the same for the next generation of women sports reporters.

“I've had young women reach out and say, ‘I saw the news, and I was really excited for you,’ and I realize it's not just about me, it's about women showing that we belong in this space, in the rooms where decisions are made,” Scott said. “Not only as a woman, but a woman of color, it’s important to show that we belong here, that we can thrive, and that we can help coach and mentor the next generation of journalists, and also provide, you know, the leadership that I saw in so many of the awesome pioneers when I was coming out of school.”

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