Chad Capellman had the chance to re-connect with a colleague from his student newspaper days, Jon Schwartz. After successful runs with NASCAR and the National Football League, Jon has just begun his role as Senior Vice President, Communications, Marketing, Digital & Social Media at the Big Ten Conference.
They talked about Jon’s goals for his new role at the Big Ten, and some of his favorite moments during his time as Senior VP of Communications and Public Affairs at the NFL. Those moments included preparing for a Zoom draft during Covid-19, coordinating messaging around the league’s 100th anniversary, the league’s response to Black Lives Matter protests and the satisfaction that came from league’s Coming Out Day promotional efforts.
They talked about how the role of public affairs has evolved and the challenges and opportunities that exist when every single player can now be their own media entity.
Jon brought us back to school to share what he’s gleaned about the media consumption and creation habits of current students as a professor at New York University, and how his own lessons learned during his student newspaper days helped start him on a path that led to the creation of his own mentoring podcast.
Jon also talked about the evolution of NASCAR and why it has a love-hate relationship with a certain Will Ferrell racing movie.
