Veteran Penn State reporter Sean Fitz joins Blue-White Illustrated

I wasn’t looking for a change, but I had to listen. 

After all, the last time I listened to one of Shannon Terry’s pitches it ended up changing my life. It was a little different this time around, though. For one, I couldn’t actually get Shannon’s vision from the horse’s mouth this time. It was, however, explained to me by his people that the Penn State market was a priority for his new business and big things were in the cards. Given his track record, I took him at their word.

Starting over, though? That was a tough call. 

We started the last venture with essentially a Facebook page and a prayer back in 2010 and slowly built it into the largest, most active Penn State fan site on the web. That wasn’t easy, given the challenges that had to be overcome. We not only had to build a community from the ground up, but also had to do so during the first part of the last decade, which wasn’t exactly the easiest time to sell Penn State. 

But as I learned over the last 12 years, it’s all about the people. One chat at a time, one breaking story at a time, one branded tailgate koozie at a time, everything we did will lay the groundwork for our next step.

That’s why I chose to come to On3. 

It’s a new era at Blue-White Illustrated. We have a lot of work ahead of us to make our vision a reality, but I believe we have the staff in place to do so. It’s one of the main reasons I have confidence in the new venture. Not unlike recruiting, the folks at On3 identified needs and filled them with the best players available. We’ve put together the most connected group of professionals that Penn State fans will have come across. On a broader sense, I believe you’ll see the same thing happen on a nationwide level moving forward. 

But back to our local station. For the first time in my career, I’ll be working on the same side as Ryan Snyder. He took my chair at Blue-White when I left back in 2010 and worked himself into my chief competitor in the last decade. He’s the best at what he does and building out the staff will give both of us a chance to bring you wall-to-wall recruiting coverage in bigger and better ways. 

I also have the chance to reunite with one of my best friends on a professional level. Despite being a competitor for the last 12 years, rarely has a day passed that I haven’t chatted with Nate Bauer. A superior writer and golfer, he’s also developed into a top-level reporter. He’s owned basketball coverage for some time and recently has proven to be equally adept on the football side of things. Hopefully folks followed and appreciated his work in August because he took Penn State camp coverage to another level. 

Add to that the presence of one of the most respected grinders on the beat in Greg Pickel and a multi-pronged multimedia effort with the help of Thomas Frank Carr and we can present a little bit of everything with our coverage. 

While my twisted sense of humor did enjoy the months of reckless speculation about my next steps, I was comfortable taking some time to reset personally and professionally. While the timing of my return to the grind isn’t ideal — thank you very much FOX and the Big Ten for that — I’m eager to get going again. That means team insights, recruiting news, podcasts and whatever else we can think of to make our coverage stand out. 

For me, I’m back where I started. I began at Blue-White as an intern in the spring of 2006, trading my view from the Penn State student section for a seat in the press box. I eventually parlayed that into a full-time gig where I get to watch football for a living. Trust me, I am well aware of how lucky I have been. Now, in taking over as the publisher, I’m excited to see what the future holds for a brand that has plenty of room to grow on a network that I believe will be one of the next big things in college sports. 

I encourage you to join us as we build something special.