The following websites and wire services have applied for membership in APSE. Per APSE bylaws, an Executive Committee vote is needed on each news organization. That vote will be taken by e-mail after this notice is listed on the APSE website for a period of 10 days.
Dues structure for websites are as follows:
Under 250,000 unique monthly visitors — $95
250,000-750,000 unique monthly visitors — $155
750,001-2,000,000 unique monthly visitors — $230
More than 2,000,000 unique monthly visitors — $305
Six websites have requested memberships:
Two wire services have requested associate (non-voting) memberships:
More details on websites under consideration:
I am writing you today on behalf of JC Shurburtt and 247Sports to express interest in our organization joining Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE).
As former members, JC and I recognize the tremendous prestige associated with membership, and we believe 247Sports can enhance APSE’s ranks as well.
In December 2013, 247Sports registered 3.7 million unique visitors to our network. In a little more than three years we have begun to make our mark in the industry, and believe our impact is only going to increase in the future. We have approximately 150 writers, reporters and editors covering college teams and recruiting for those schools. Among our staff are former APSE contest winners like Shurburtt, Gentry Estes, Wes Rucker and other former APSE members like Bobby Burton.
I was fortunate to be a staffer under former APSE president Phil Kaplan at the Knoxville News Sentinel, and our Tennessee 247Sports site has a partnership with the Sentinel that will last at least another three years. As you know, we also have a strategic partnership with CBS Interactive. That agreement alone should show that 247Sports is worthy of APSE membership.
We do all our own writing, editing and original reporting on the sites. We are not a blog that simply links to others’ work. We adhere to AP style, and strive to meet a level of professionalism that would make APSE proud. Our 247Sports Composite rankings offer an unbiased, industry-wide view of prospects and recruiting classes, something I’m sure that would benefit APSE members when writing stories on recruits and recruiting classes.
We would be honored to join ASPE, and are thankful for being considered at this time.
Sincerely,
Kevin Ryan, 247Sports
kryan@247sports.com
BamaOnLine.com (BOL) was established on June 6, 1996. After 15 years on two different networks (AllianceSports.com and Rivals.com), BOL moved to the 247Sports Network on March 1, 2011. Prior to moving to 247Sports, BOL grew to more than 12,000 active subscribers, becoming the largest unofficial college team site on the Internet. BOL is a fully credentialed online media publication covering the daily beat for Alabama football and basketball, and recruiting.
BamaOnLine writers are members of both the Alabama Sports Writers Association and the Football Writers Association of America (winning the column and game story categories in the 2012 best writing contest).
On behalf of our 12-person editorial staff at MaxPreps.com, I am requesting membership into the APSE.
MaxPreps was founded in 2002 and we have steadily grown to the point of our current numbers — 8 million unique visits and 125 million views per month. A majority of those are clicks on schedules, scores and photos for certain, but our staff publishes roughly 75 original blogs and stories per week.
Our staff includes an executive editor, a photo editor, a video editor, two managing editors, two line editors and five full-time writers. In addition, we use experienced freelance writers throughout the country — we have more than 40 we call upon during the year — who write and have won writing awards for respected daily newspapers such as the Dallas Morning News (Matt Wixon and Randy Jennings), San Diego Union-Tribune (Steve Brand), Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Todd Holcomb), Sacramento Bee (Joe Davidson), Philadelphia Enquirer (Joseph Santoliquito), Cincinnati Enquirer (Mike Dyer), Los Angeles Times (Steve Galluzzo) and Boston Globe (Zuri Berry).
Six of our 10 writers have vast daily newspaper experience — roughly 160 years worth — including former USA Today prep editor Dave Krider, 75, a three-time journalism Hall-of-Fame inductee.
Gerry Valerio (Rocky Mountain News) and myself (San Francisco Chronicle) also have considerable Metro newspaper experience, and Jim Stout has worked for more than two decades at suburban papers on the East Coast and covered the NHL.
We have two exceptional budding journalists whose primary duties are to edit and plan our site (they are also superb writers) — Leland Gordon and Colin Ward-Henninger — and our football (Stephen Spiewak), basketball (Jason Hickman) and baseball (Kevin Askeland) editors are second to none in terms of coverage and knowledge of their respective sports on the national level.
Putting it all together is our executive editor Steve Montoya, who is involved in every facet, including our video and photography teams. Our national director of photography — 25-year journalist Todd Shurtleff — leads a remarkable 850-member professional freelance network which produces more than 8,000 galleries annually. Ryan Escobar, our director of video, runs a network of more than 100 videographers who scour the country with both game highlights and story packages.
As far as what we do? It’s really unprecedented. Trying to cover high school sports nationally — more than 20,000 schools and a dozen sports — is an ambitious task for sure. Our writers tell big and original stories about top-level athletes, record-setting performances, unusual occurrences and all things of human interest.
In the past year we covered big breaking events with reporters, photographers and videographers on the scene, such as when 86-year-old football coach John McKissick won his 600th game in South Carolina and when Derrick Henry broke a 59-year-old career national rushing mark in Florida.
We wrote topical human-interest pieces on Olympic gold medalists Missy Franklin (Colo.) and Claressa Shields (Mich.), and on obscure but inspirational athletes such as quadruple amputee and baseball standout Josh Ruchotzke (Ill.) and blind football player Davonte Pollard (Fla.).
Our regular monthly feature, “Beyond the X,” has gained a devoted audience, especially following our extensive reports on two of the country’s deadliest national disasters, Hurricane Sandy and the tornado in Joplin, Mo.
We followed a football team in Point Pleasant Beach (N.J.) going after a historic title during the aftermath of Sandy and we visited Joplin High School a year after it had been demolished by the tornado. We wrote a 10-part story on how they were able to put a school, athletic program and lives all back together.
We also strive to tell untold and enterprising stories, such as another “Beyond the X” piece about the Navajo Nation’s unyielding love and passion for high school basketball. In the impoverished Four Corners region, reservation towns barely find enough funds to pave roads or house its citizens, but federal dollars are spent to build mosaic, state-of-the-art basketball gymnasiums that seat 6,000 to 10,0000 fans, who find a great sense of pride and escapism through what they call “Rez Ball.”
Add to all this recruiting news, national and regional rankings, statistical roundups and scores and schedules, and our attempt is basically to uncover every facet of high school sports every day of the year.
Thank you for your time and consideration for membership into the APSE and we look forward to any questions or comments that you may have.
Sincerely,
Mitch Stephens
Senior writer/columnist
mstephens@maxpreps.com
This is Justin Breen from DNAinfo.com/Chicago — an awesome online-only news site covering all 77 Chicago neighborhoods. We launched in November 2012 and average about 100,000 page views a day. I previously was sports editor at The Times of Northwest Indiana and judged APSE contests twice, once in Indianapolis and the other time in Indianapolis. Our site does not have a "sports editor" per se, but we do provide sports content. Many of the stories I write are about sports. I'm wondering about joining APSE as a "Writers Wing" member. Is that the appropriate route, or would we need to join as a "Website". We have a full-time staff of about 35 people, but most of our content is not sports related, and we do not have a sports editor.
I am contacting you in regards to membership with the APSE. I previously made an inquiry last year, but wanted to check back with you concerning the membership fee.
We are not a blog or citizen journalism site, but rather a credentialed sports news organization covering Missouri teams and athletes (college and professional).
We recently re-branded our site from Missouri Sports Magazine to Missouri Sports Redux (for service and trademark opportunities). Our previous monthly unique visits reached over 500,000 in 2012 – We are currently at 205,649.
I am currently the only editor on staff. I am credentialed with the NFL, NCAA and NCAA-II teams we cover. We have two photographers that are credentialed members as well. I do have writers and contributors that are credentialed with the NCAA and lower division, but not at the professional level at this point.
Thank you once again for your time and consideration,
Shane Patton, Editorial Director
Missouri Sports Redux (MSR)
Email: shane@missourisportsredux.com | Web: http://missourisportsredux.com
Proud member of the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA)
Gamecocks Central is a Rivals.com site focused on University of South Carolina athletics.
We would like to register for membership.
XML Team has several divisions that would value participation as members of APSE. Like classic wire services, we supply our original and syndicated content to print newspapers, online newspapers, and general sports websites. That content includes:
— sports photos from our Icon Sports Media photo wire, with daily coverage of pro and college events
— player analysis and game coverage from our internal editorial staff, The Sports Forecaster
— live and post-game scores and statistics from our syndication partners
We deliver that content via XML feeds, and also in pagination-ready formats (Adobe InDesign and Quark XPress) via our online AgateDepot.com platform.
We are also building out the b2c presence of our own Sports Forecaster brand. The Sports Forecaster has published annual league preview magazines for the top pro leagues for the past 15 years. We are re-launching SportsForecaster.com to feature our own internal player and game analysis, updated daily. And we'll also be featuring select photos from Icon Sports Media, and supplemental content from our syndication partners.
I run the editorial department over at STATS, and we had some interest in potentially joining APSE. While STATS is primarily known for its cutting-edge data collection and distribution, we also have a 20-person editorial staff that writes game previews, creates real-time headline packages and produces a bevy of other editorial products. Of course, the company is a joint venture of AP and 21st Century Fox. We exclusively redistribute the AP sports feed to online clients, while packaging hosted solutions to commercial customers as well as many AP member newspapers.
STATS data powers the AP agate feed, while also being at the technical forefront of sports content delivery and products. In addition to anything we may be able to take from APSE membership, I believe STATS can add a unique voice and area of expertise that your members would find insightful.
Brian Orefice
Director, News & Editorial Operations
STATS LLC
