These are exciting times in APSE. Remote judging for the contest is well underway, thanks to the organizational acumen of contest chair Dan Spears. Thank you to all those who have volunteered to give some of their precious time to being judges. (If you think you’ve missed out on a chance to judge, it might not be too late to join the fun! Email apsecontest@gmail.com to ask if you can still help.) I look forward to seeing many of you in Orlando … checks calendar … next week for our winter meetings and in-person judging.
It’s hard to believe my presidency is two-thirds over. You will hear about many APSE projects and initiatives in the coming weeks, coming out of our winter conference. Great strides are often made after we are gathered in one place. I expect our time together will also be one of commiseration. Since my New Year’s message, the bad news in journalism has come in waves, hitting many of our colleagues in sports hard.
It all made me think of a wonderfully honest panel I attended at the Asian American Journalists Association convention last summer about how to survive layoffs. The conference room was packed for the session, and when the panelists asked how many people in the room had been laid off at least once, so many hands shot up. Many stayed up when the room was asked who had been laid off multiple times. This is the nature of business. The word resilience came up a lot that day. But there were so many good questions, and so much wisdom. It was practical and, importantly, emotional. The panelists produced this guide, which I have touted often and shared many times. Now I share it with you.
Is this something you want to have a session about at our summer convention in Charlotte in June? There are still a few days left to pitch ideas for panels and workshops. Submit your suggestions in this survey.
Career development is a central tenet of our convention. And all year round, APSE offers resources and a large and strong network to help journalists find their footing. It says right where you join our organization, “We are all stronger when we are of service to each other.” You can find our job board here. You can reach out to me or any of our other national officers or regional leaders. You can talk to our diversity chair Sherrod Blakely at sherrodb111@gmail.com about our prospects database. Keep an eye out for regional meetings and other career development opportunities in the spring.
To end this on a happier note: Around this time next week, we may have started our celebration of our best journalism of 2023, when contest results start rolling in. I’m excited show off the power and skill of our members.
Quick hits
- Sports editors at member organizations either have received or will receive an email about a new survey for a 2024 Racial and Gender Report Card from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida. This is a very important initiative for APSE, so please take the time to fill out the form. Thank you to former APSE president Jorge Rojas for spearheading this effort.
- Congratulations to the newest SJI class! APSE has long, strong ties to the Sports Journalism Institute, and many of these student journalists will be interning at member organizations this summer. Can’t wait to see what you do.
- If you’re new here, there are many ways to keep track of our events. Follow us @apse_sportmedia on X and apsportseditors on Instagram and join the Associated Press Sports Editors group on Facebook. You can also watch recordings of our programming on the AP Sports Editors YouTube channel.
