Published September 16, 2025

Football season makes me think about lecterns and podiums far more often than I’d like. But this is serious business, as important as anything preached from behind a pulpit, and I don’t want to be seen as not caring, so I decided to post about this.

A lot of editors I’ve worked with assume that when writers write “podium,” they mean “lectern.” Well, I — someone who has been to hundreds of these events, unlike most of my editing teammates over the years — know it’s not always so simple. Often, it calls for an easy workaround and getting on with your life.

Here’s my deal with podium/lectern: Although I watch out for when a reporter uses the wrong term, there are times when it’s not clear and not worth going to great lengths to find out what they mean. Some postgame interviews are done with a coach or athlete(s) seated at a table on top of a podium, or raised platform.

Some have a lectern on top of a podium!

Many just have a lectern in front of a logo- and ad-filled backdrop. The bigger the star, teams sometimes make sure they’re on a raised platform, a podium, because of the high interest.

My approach

At 3:40 a.m. Eastern, I’m not going to try to track down whether it was a lectern or podium the person walked away from, because no reader is going to give it a second thought. Other times? Sure. But I don’t sweat it on the late, late stories because it’s not worth trying to find out from a reporter who’s just put in a 12-hour day or longer.

I’ve put in such days, and longer ones. You get to the stadium three hours before game time, talk to a source or two, flesh out a “notebook” of items to share with readers, cover the game, do your interviews, write your story and file it. You might stop to eat on the way home. Maybe you’re on the road, and you have to see what’s open on the way back to your hotel.

And maybe there was a problem with your reservation, so you have to find a hotel.

I hope it doesn’t seem like I don’t care, but I’m not pinging a reporter who’s on their way to their hotel or house after such a workday, only to ask if they know the difference between a podium and a lectern. I’m not going to bug them while they’re juggling a thousand things if it’s something I can solve or work around.

They have to wake up and do their job again later in the day that’s already begun!

There are other ways to find out

On deadline, I’ve looked for (and found) the postgame videos to confirm when I can, and I’ve also written around it. Was he at a podium or a lectern? Just give the quote, I usually conclude. There are about 400 ways to avoid being specific.

As an editing friend of mine, a real pro with common sense, tells me often, “No reader is going to be hanging on that detail.”

I don’t want to die of a heart attack at my desk because I can’t figure out if it was a podium or a lectern. Most readers don’t care. Many of my friends don’t know the difference, and that line is blurring, as dictionaries and usage guides have begun noting. And I don’t want our writers to die of a heart attack. They have enough stress.

The best editors keep things in perspective and find another way to say it if there’s any question. Life is short. If you keep the reader in mind, more so than your allegiance to a rule or even a definition, you will find a way to solve the “problem.” Most splitting-hair debates in newsrooms about words can be put to bed by writing around it.

That doesn’t satisfy the people who really need to know whether you know all the rules they know, but I am here to tell you: Nothing is ever good enough for them. Live long and prosper. Don’t sweat everything they sweat.

♥

Thank you

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Image of person speaking at a lectern by BlackWhiteMouse via Shutterstock.

Photo of Seattle Seahawks’ Doug Baldwin after Super Bowl XLVIII by Jai Agnish via Shutterstock.