The Northeast Region has made an overt effort over the last year to get more current APSE members involved in the group at any level.
So when Judy Connelly took a new job and moved out of the region and Jim Luttrell of The New York Times moved up to region chair, there were strong candidates to fill the open position of vice chair.
Jason Murray of The Syracuse Post-Standard had attended a couple of regional meetings and had gotten the attention of the group’s veterans. Joe Sullivan of The Boston Globe, Hank Winnicki of Newsday and Luttrell were prepared to triple team Murray to convince him to take on the job, but it turned out to be an easy sell.
Murray, 35, spent a year as a copy writer at Bank of America.com before landing as a copy editor at The Post-Standard in 2003. A year later, he was promoted to assistant sports editor, and he became sports editor in 2011. In 2013, he was named sports manager for the Syracuse Media Group, which includes Syracuse.com and the newspaper.
“I’m hoping to work with my fellow sports editors to figure out how we’re going to survive and thrive in this digital age,” Murray said. “OK. I’m also looking for a good excuse to visit places like San Diego for the APSE conference this summer.”
Born and raised in Vallejo, Calif., near San Francisco, Murray graduated from St. Mary’s College and earned a Master’s degree from Syracuse. He has survived upstate New York winters with his wife and 11-year-old daughter.
“While we’ve tried to bring in new members, we think it’s equally important to keep our current members more engaged,” Luttrell said. “The energy that people like Jason, Justin Pelletier of The Sun-Journal, Justin Hathaway of NESN and others are bringing to APSE is terrific. And, of course, we also have the irrepressible Greg Brownell.”
