The changing media landscape was the undercurrent of the Associated Press Sports Editors’ Southwest Region meeting in San Antonio on July 16-17.
Nineteen journalists from around Texas, representing papers large and small as well as the Associated Press, gathered for two days to exchange their best ideas for how to provide quality journalism in a challenging, quickly changing environment.
The meeting kicked off with a presentation on videos, blogs and chats. Led by the Houston Chronicle’s Jeff Rosen and the Corpus Christi Caller-Times’ John Allen Jr., it moved into a free-flowing exchange about what seems to be working on the web.
Michael Peters, the Chronicle’s high school sports editor, proposed the idea of creating a statewide Friday night network of sharing prep football scores. “We could all benefit from that,” Peters said.
Web-print co-existence continued to be the theme of the first day as Allen and Nick Talbot of the Killeen Daily Herald discussed what sports departments can do to ensure that their print and web operations work well together without draining the life out of each other. They conceded that it’s a challenging dance.
“You have to think about how to repurpose content as much as possible,” Allen said.
On Saturday, the focus shifted to staff development and the logistics of covering events on smaller budgets.
In co-leading a session on staff development, Brad Lehman, Hearst sports editor and Southwest Region chair, talked about “the power of lunch.” He emphasized that taking a staff member out of the office, where stress is high, can pay dividends in development.
“It can be an hour well spent,” Lehman said.
Talbot and Keith Campbell, deputy sports editor at the Dallas Morning News, led a discussion on how to retain quality in the sports section when you’ve been forced to cut back on travel.
“The key is to give readers something they still can sink their teeth into,” Campbell said.
In addition to the member presentations, the group heard from Austin American-Statesman writer Kevin Robbins on how he approaches long-form features and Texas-San Antonio football coach Larry Coker, who discussed his plans for launching football at the school.
