In Jane McManus’s M.S. in Strategic Communication (SCOM) courses, Ethics for Communicators and Gender and Communication in the Workplace, many students are drawn to them by their personal experiences.
“Students want to be seen and understood. They want their experience and perspective to be engaged,” said McManus. Those themes of visibility, voice, and equity have shaped both her reporting career and her work in the classroom.
McManus is a sportswriter, lecturer in the SCOM program, lecturer in the Columbia Pre-College Program, and the author of The Fast Track: Inside the Surging Business of Women’s Sports (Temple University Press, 2025). McManus’s path to teaching and writing a book about women’s sports stems from her experiences as a sports journalist.
As she started covering sports, “I was confronted with the way I was seen as a woman first and a journalist second, and I was aware of the way women and women’s sports were talked about in the sports departments I was part of,” she explained.
She chose to write The Fast Track because she “wanted to tell the stories of the current gains and remember the people who worked so diligently to get us here, or who never got through the glass ceiling.”
In a recent conversation with SPS, McManus discussed the inspiration behind her book, which was recently recognized as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2025 by Choice, and the strategic communication lessons from her career as a journalist and educator.
Could you start by introducing your background and what led you to the SCOM program?
I’m a sportswriter by trade, and have covered just about every kind of athletic endeavor. That includes nearly a decade at ESPN covering the NFL and taking a role as a columnist at espnW when it was founded in 2010.
I loved my time at Columbia earning my master’s at the Graduate School of Journalism, and I taught the sports journalism class there for a few years. Less well known is that I did my undergraduate degree at St. John’s College, a tiny liberal arts program built around a shared curriculum focused on The Great Books. We read and discussed Aristotle, Kant, and others, including their works on ethics.
A few semesters ago, I was teaching at NYU in the undergraduate sports management program, and they asked if I’d feel comfortable teaching a sports ethics class. I enjoyed revisiting the concepts I’d studied as an undergrad and applying them to the topics I’d spent a career thinking about. I realized how much of my own thinking about sports had been shaped by what I read back then. When I saw that SPS was looking for an Ethics for Communicators instructor, I applied. It was a great course to teach, and now I’m teaching a gender and communication class.
Congratulations on your recognition for The Fast Track! Could you tell us what motivated you to write this book?
The recent surge of attention around athletes like Caitlin Clark isn’t the beginning of the story of women’s sports, and I wanted to make sure the context is archived. Women’s sports have long drawn audiences—the first year of the WNBA posted some of the strongest attendance and ratings figures until very recently. There was, however, a real reluctance to cover and platform those sports and athletes at the time. Now that we are at a new place in coverage and investment, I wanted to tell the stories of the current gains and remember the people who worked so diligently to get us here, or who never broke through the glass ceiling. I want fans, athletes, and students in Sports Management courses to have a well-researched, well-reported guide to these issues.
What most surprised or challenged you while researching and writing The Fast Track?
I conducted about 75 interviews for the book and worked with groups conducting research on women’s sports. Some of the numbers were stunning, such as Wasserman’s data showing that women in professional sports earn 82% of their annual income from endorsements, in part because salaries (and revenue) have historically been so low, for reasons that I cover in my book. The numbers are almost inverse for players in men’s pro leagues. Functionally, it means women have to use their social media and other platforms, which affects how they communicate, both for sponsorships and for personal and collective advocacy.
Were there any particular strategic communication tactics you put to use in the writing of this book, which you hope SCOM/Pre-College students in particular can identify during their reading?
Absolutely. There is no substitute for talking to people when you are seeking information and understanding. Communication means connecting with people. I encourage all of my students to make a phone call, set up a Zoom, or meet with experts and sources about the class assignments. Being able to make those personal connections can be the difference between a job and another opportunity. That’s something I learned from my own Columbia education, and it remains relevant despite new ways of encountering information.
Can you tell us a bit about your experience teaching at SPS?
I’ve had a terrific experience at SPS, and the support from the administration here is impressive. I have a strong partnership with course associate Nyota Ferguson, who brings a wealth of marketing and crisis communication experience to the classroom. I also taught a really fun sports marketing class for the Pre-College Program, and those students have been excellent about keeping me updated on their college applications and classes. Most of all, it’s the students who have made the experience so rewarding. The range of perspectives they bring—from across industries and around the world—creates a classroom environment that is both inclusive and intellectually dynamic, reinforcing the School’s mission to prepare communicators who understand context, culture, and impact.
About the Program
Columbia University's M.S. in Strategic Communication program empowers current and aspiring leaders to shape the future through strategic communication. It is designed to respond to the urgent need for global perspectives, critical thinking, and ethical decision-making at all levels of organization. The interdisciplinary curriculum emphasizes audience-centered strategy and digital competency. Distinguished scholar-practitioner faculty bring real-world experience into the classroom and provide a learning experience that is immediately relevant in the workplace.
The program is available full-time on campus or part-time online with residencies. The part-time format is ideal for experienced full-time professionals based in or outside the New York metropolitan area. Learn more about the program here.
