2012 APSE West Region Fall Meeting

Monday, Nov. 12, Santa Monica, Calif.

Location
Yahoo! Santa Monica, Building D, First floor, 2400 Broadway Avenue

Agenda
8:30-9:30 a.m.
Breakfast with the Dodgers
Stan Kasten, president and part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, joins us for coffee and conversation.

9:30-9:45 a.m.
Intro and welcome, late registration, housekeeping items.

9:45-10:45 a.m.
Major overhaul: Making a legacy newspaper act more like a digital start-up
Session leaders: Bud Geracie and Mark Conley, San Jose Mercury News
From deadline retraining to content driven by SEO-friendly headlines to thinking tweet/blog/live chat first, game story second, we discuss efforts that have worked and efforts that have failed. And how to set expectations when we're asking our people to do it all, and still do it well.

10:45 a.m.-noon
New media/jobs
Session leader: Melissa Geisler, Yahoo! Sports
Panel: Dave Morgan, Senior Vice President for Content and Editor in Chief, USA Today Sports Media Group; Michael Anastasi, Vice President & Executive Editor, Los Angeles News Group, Joe Lago, Deputy Editor, Yahoo! Sports. 
A perfect follow-up to the preceding session looks at the changing face of the sports media world from the opposite end – the entry point into our world. This session is designed to allow college student-journalists to get a look at the employment opportunities that exist across a myriad of media companies, touching on all platforms. Presentations by several editors or managers from traditional and new media companies lead to Q&A opportunities from our student guests.

Noon-1 p.m.
Working lunch/job fair
As we enjoy lunch, student-journalists will be invited to engage in 1-on-1 or small group conversations with editors to discuss their employment plans, job opportunities, etc.

1-2:30 p.m.
Has the Pac-12 lost its mind?
Session leader: Gene Warnick, Los Angeles News Group
Panel: Mike James, Los Angeles Times; Don Shelton, Seattle Times; Todd Adams, San Diego Union-Tribune; Gerry Ahern, APSE president
Brushfires we encounter while covering college sports is not new, but things seemingly have escalated this fall as news organizations are being pitted against university athletic departments over football practice access, among other issues. Reporters have had credentials revoked, newspapers have stopped covering practices. No one is winning. This session will explore these new incidents, look at what’s happening around the country, and what, if anything, can be done about it going forward.

2:30-2:45 p.m.
Break

2:45-4 p.m. 
Owning the story
Session leader: Mark Faller, Arizona Republic
Panel: Todd Harmonson, Orange County Register; Johanna Huybers, Reno Gazette-Journal
Owning the story. We have the access and the expertise, and our readers trust us. How do we leverage this to maintain/strengthen our connection and keep competitors/interlopers at bay – and give ourselves credit in the process.

4-4:15 p.m.
Final wrap-up, discussion of possible 2013 meeting locations, other business as needed