Gregory Martin Baum (born 14 December 1959) is an Australian
sports journalist.
Early years and education
Baum was born in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, Victoria, the first of six children to Martin and Joan Baum. He attended
Boronia
''Boronia'' is a genus of about 160 species of flowering plants in the citrus family Rutaceae. Most are endemic to Australia with a few species in New Caledonia, which were previously placed in the genus ''Boronella''. They occur in all Austral ...
State Primary school, then St Josephs Primary School Boronia. He then attended St Joseph's Regional College,
Ferntree Gully, graduating in 1976. He enrolled in the
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public university, public research university in Melbourne, Australia.
Founded in 1887 by Francis Ormond, RMIT began as a night school offering cla ...
(RMIT) journalism course and began work as a cadet with Leader Newspapers on the local paper, the ''Knox-Sherbrooke News'', in 1977.
Journalism career
After a number of his articles on the local football competition were republished in ''
The Sun'', a major newspaper in Melbourne, Baum was offered a job by that newspaper, becoming a sub-editor at the age of 20. He ultimately became a full-time sportswriter for the paper, including
ghosting a column for former footballer
Lou Richards
Lewis Thomas Charles "Lou" Richards, (15 March 1923 – 8 May 2017) was an Australian rules footballer who played 250 games for the Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) between 1941 and 1955. He captained the tea ...
.
In May 1989 he was offered a job by Fairfax Publications at ''
The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...
'', the Sun's main rival. Baum has continued to write for ''The Age'', where he is a Senior Sports Writer, and an Associate Editor as well as writing for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' of London. He also edited the last Australian edition of ''
Wisden
''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...
''. He has travelled to many countries including America, Canada, India, Pakistan Italy, Germany, Brazil, South Africa and England covering Olympics, soccer and cricket. He has received a number of awards for his work, from the
Melbourne Cricket Ground Trust, the Victorian Boxing Association and the Australian Press Association. He also received a 2008
Walkley Award
The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...
in the "Commentary, analysis, opinion, and critique" category. He is the author of several books on sporting personalities including Paul Reiffel and Steve Waugh, and was the ghost writer of ''Dangerous Days'', an account of the wartime adventures of Private Laurie Brough. He has three children and lives in Melbourne.
References
External links
Greg Baum's ''The Age'' profile*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baum, Greg
1959 births
Australian sportswriters
Living people
Journalists from Melbourne
People from the City of Knox
RMIT University alumni