By Josh Barnett
Chair, APSE Regions Committee
Executive Sports Editor, Philadelphia Daily News
Nick Mathews has moved from the online sports editor of the Houston Chronicle to the sports editor, and among his first moves will be to eliminate the title and position he previously held.
“My goal is to fully integrate the print and online aspects of the Chronicle sports department,” Mathews says. “We will fill this position with an assistant sports editor, and our team of editors will organize everything – print and online, scheduling blogs as well as print stories. In my proposal for the position, I wrote that the editors would have the most fun – and most challenging – positions in the building.”
Mathews begins his new role June 4 and replaces Brad Lehman.
Mathews joined the Chronicle last year and was cited for his role in creating UltimateTexans and UltimateRockets, two initiatives that expanded the Chronicle’s online presence. He also was a key part of the coverage of the Final Four in Houston in 2011.
“I’ve had the good fortune of working with our writers for the last year, and I still am in awe of their versatile skills, dedication and work ethic,” he said. “And the group of editors we have here – including Jay Lee and Jenny Dial – is first-class. We’re going to have a lot of fun.”
Mathews said he also will focus on daily enterprise, “with the goal to have as many terrific sports stories on A1 as possible.”
He previously was the sports editor of the Newport News (Va.) Daily Press, where he was named sports editor in January 2008. Mathews, a University of Missouri graduate, also had stops in Decatur, Ill.; Fremont, Ohio; and Athens, Ga.
Lehman has accepted a position as senior editor at USAA, an insurance and financial services company that focuses on military families and is based in San Antonio. Before moving to sports, he had worked in business.
“I want to thank Brad for everything he has done for me and our section,” Mathews said. “Brad reached out to me when I was in Newport News for the position of online sports editor. I enjoyed working with Brad, and he genuinely is one of the best people I’ve met in the business. A great, great journalist, but an even better person.”
Before becoming the Chronicle sports editor, Lehman was appointed in 2010 to the newly created position as Texas sports editor for the Hearst corporation, based in Houston at the Chronicle. At the time, he has been the sports editor of the Express-News in San Antonio.
“I had been thinking over some midlife career and personal decisions, so this move made sense on a number of levels,” Lehman says of his departure from the business. “The main thing I wanted was more free time, and the best way for me to do that was to break away from an industry I’ve worked for and defended loyally for 30 years.
“I don’t want my decision to be taken as an indictment of newspapers. We produce more independently reported content than any other medium. In an era when sports reporting is increasingly produced by organizations that have partnerships with sports leagues or by the leagues themselves, we serve a vital role. At the same time, our audience keeps moving to new types of media. We have to pursue our readers and change with them while maintaining our independence.”
Lehman has been the business editor of the Express-News, deputy business editor of the Miami Herald and held a variety of editing/reporting roles at the Virginian-Pilot.
Harvey to Houston
Another change at the Houston Chronicle is the addition of Randy Harvey as a sports columnist.
He most recently was the associate editor of the Los Angeles Times and has previously been the sports editor of the Times and the Baltimore Sun. He joined the Times in 1981 as a reporter and was named a columnist in 1996.
A Texas native, Harvey graduated from the University Texas and has worked at the Tyler Morning Telegraph, the Austin American-Statesman and the Dallas Times Herald.
“Randy and I accepted our positions just a couple days apart. And I told him from the very beginning when we started talking that there wasn’t another person in the country I wanted to be our columnist,” Mathews said. “I am thrilled. Randy is one of the best writers in the country, and, as a veteran sports editor, he’s going to be a great sounding board for me as well. … And when you pair Randy with Jerome Solomon, we have one of the best columnist teams in the country. It’s very exciting.”
No SE in Allentown
The Morning Call in Allentown has eliminated the sports editor position, laying off longtime editor Bill Kline, and splitting the duties among two staffers. Ernie Long will retain the title of sports content editor and will continue to serve as the assigning editor. The management responsibilities will go to Mike Miorelli, who will have the title of metro/sports editor and digital topic manager for both. All section editor titles at the paper include the digital topic manager reference.
“His main role will continue to be running the daily news operation, and he will have oversight over sports,” editor/vice president David Erdman said. Erdman conceded the move was “a little radical,” but said he could not discuss personnel issues.
Asked whether the paper planned to retain the position in the sports department but in another role, Erdman said, “We are not recreating [the position] in any way on the sports staff.”
Long, a longtime member of the staff at the Morning Call, began his career as a sports news assistant. He spent more than 12 years as a reporter at the paper and then nearly a decade as a sports copy editor and copy chief. He was moved to his current position three years ago.
Laymance leaves St. Louis
Reid Laymance, who has been the assistant managing editor for sports of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch since May 2008, left the paper on May 18. The move came the same day that six newsroom employees were laid off, but the paper said they were unrelated.
Steve Parker, the deputy managing editor for news, has replaced Laymance on an interim basis while retaining oversight of Page 1, the paper said.
Beard promoted in Evansville
Randy Beard is back as a sports editor, replacing Tim Ethridge, at the Courier & Press in
Evansville, Ind. Ethridge has been named the newspaper’s editor.
Beard, who has been on the Courier & Press staff for five years, was previously the sports editor at the Anderson (S.C.) Independent Mail and the executive sports editor of the Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat. In his nearly five years in Evansville, he has been a columnist, University of Evansville beat writer and a slot copy editor.
As a writer, Beard worked at newspapers in Beaufort, S.C., Bradenton, Fla., Fort Myers, Fla., St. Petersburg, Fla., and Spartanburg, S.C.
"I appreciate this opportunity Tim has given me," Beard said in a story published on the newspaper’s web site. "I'm looking forward to being a sports editor again."
McGill carries on
Chuck McGill, who delivered the Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail as a kid, is now the paper’s sports editor. McGill has covered Marshall football and men's basketball, and the West Virginia Power minor league baseball team since joining the staff in 2009. He was voted the West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year by the Nationals Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association last year.
“It is my job to uphold and enhance the standard set by my predecessors, put a great amount of care into the print product and have an aggressive online presence,” he said. “With the current staff here, I have no shortage of confidence we can accomplish those things on a daily basis."
He previously spent three years as the sports editor of the Northern Virginia Daily and has undergraduate and master’s degrees from West Virginia University.
Zink named in Riverside
David Zink, who has spent nearly two decades in a variety of roles at the Riverside (Calif.) Press Enterprise, has been named sports editor. He replaces David Ammenheuser, who left to become the sports editor at The Tennessean in Nashville.
Zink had most recently been serving as senior video producer. He also has been a sports reporter, features editor/reporter, video editor and online editor/producer. He began his career in 1987 as a high school sports writer and agate clerk and would cover local sports throughout the region before becoming the paper’s golf writer.
Zink is a Riverside native.
“It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to head up the award-winning sports department of The Press-Enterprise,” said Zink. “It will be a pleasure to work alongside such a great staff. We are eager to grow our already strong local following in print and in the digital world.”
Change in Fort Collins
Mile Blumhardt, who has held numerous jobs in 21 years at the Coloradoan in Fort Collins, has been named sports/active living editor. He also will continue to oversee the Xplore outdoors section. He replaces Sean Duffy, who was with the newspaper since 1988 and has left the business.
“The core of our coverage will be what virtually every reader group has told us repeatedly what matters most to them – local, local, local,” Blumhardt wrote in a column to readers. “We'll focus our coverage on local teams, players present and past, personalities, trends and issues.”
In other moves:
Hartford Courant: Sports reporter Shawn Courchesne was among nine Hartford Courant newsroom staffers who recently took a buyout package. He began working at the Courant in 1993 as a high school agate clerk while still in college. He was the paper’s UConn football beat reporter from 2005 through the summer of 2008, when he was named the Courant’s first sports online reporter. He continued to contribute to blogs about UConn football, and men’s and women’s basketball. He also has been the Courant’s motorsports writer since 1995. He recently created the website RaceDayCT.com.
Oklahoman: Jason Kersey will join the paper’s extensive coverage of University of Oklahoma football. He has been with the paper since November 2006 and has worked on the copy desk and coordinated Thunder coverage before spending the last year covering high schools and Oklahoma State football recruiting. Sports editor Mike Sherman says the paper is in the process of adding another reporter to the coverage team.
Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.: Ted Hutton ended a 30-year stay at the Sun Sentinel in South Florida to pursue interests outside of sports journalism. He most recently was covering Florida Atlantic football, among other duties.
In a note, Hutton wrote, “I've been at the Sun Sentinel for 30 years, and have been a copy editor, assistant city editor, city editor, assistant sports editor and, the last 11 years, a sports reporter. I started in 1982 when the Fort Lauderdale News was the afternoon paper, and the Sun-Sentinel the morning one and they had separate staffs. Obviously a lot has changed, but the paper always offered new challenges and opportunities to grow and learn new skills. Been a great run. And now I start another one.”
The State, Columbia, S.C.: Charlotte Sun sports editor Patrick Obley has rejoined the staff at The State, covering the men's and women's basketball teams at South Carolina.
Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel: Austin Ward has left the paper to cover Ohio State for ESPN.com.
