Leadership

Paul Barrett, President

Paul Barrett has been The Seattle Times sports editor since 2016 and on staff there since 2015. Under his leadership, The Times has won three APSE Contest Grand Slams, two Triple Crowns and multiple digital and writing awards.

Paul started his first full-time newspaper job in 1989 as a high schools reporter at the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, while a student at Washington State University.

Since then he’s worked at daily newspapers of all sizes in various areas of the country as a reporter, editor, designer and manager, including stints as night sports editor at The Arizona Republic and Miami Herald. Paul, a Seattle native, has been an APSE member since 2015 and a contest judge since 2017.

Perryn Keys, First Vice President

Perryn Keys was named sports editor of The Buffalo News in the summer of 2024.

As the leader of The Advocate’s sports department from 2019-2024, Keys’ department was at the forefront of sports betting coverage, developed young writers into some of the industry’s best. He also led strong (and zoned!) print editions in Baton Rouge to focus on colleges, and New Orleans where the focus shifts toward the pros, and set a standard for how to cover a major university, LSU, that excels in high profile sports like football, basketball and baseball.

Erik Hall, Second Vice President

Erik Hall is the managing editor of The Telegraph in Alton, Illinois, where he leads coverage across news and sports. He previously served as digital sports editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, lead sports producer for the USA TODAY Network, and assistant sports editor at both The Roanoke (Virginia) Times and Columbia Missourian.

Hall served on the APSE Foundation board from 2023-25, was the Southeast Region chair and vice chair from 2019–23, and is a graduate of the APSE Diversity Fellowship program. In 2023, he spearheaded a video project interviewing more than 20 past APSE presidents to mark the organization’s 50th anniversary.

Beyond APSE, Hall was named the 2017 LGBTQ+ Journalist of the Year by NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists. Hall holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Illinois and a master’s in journalism from the University of Missouri.

Tony Maluso, Third Vice President

Tony Maluso is the community sports editor for Baltimore Sun Media; sports editor for Annapolis Capital Gazette and Carroll County Times.

He has been an APSE member since 2017.

He worked seven years at an ESPN Radio affiliate in Youngstown, Ohio, before transitioning to print journalism. Starting from a part-time role at a small daily paper in Salem, Ohio, he worked his way up to higher positions in bigger markets. He became a full-time sports writer at the Tiffin (Ohio) Advertiser-Tribune and was soon promoted to assistant sports editor. After four years in Tiffin, in 2015 he became sports editor at the Dalton (Ga.) Daily Citizen-News. In 2018 he took over the sports editor’s role at The Citizens’ Voice in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Budget cuts and the pandemic moved him to a news editing role until he rejoined the sports world in 2022, taking his current position at Baltimore Sun Media.

Bill Eichenberger, Executive Director

Bill Eichenberger was APSE president in 2003-04 when he was the sports editor at Newsday, and he currently is an editor at Sportico. Other stops during his career include the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Bleacher Report, the Wall Street Journal, the Akron Beacon Journal and Macon Telegraph.

He is a graduate of the University of Georgia.

John Bednarowski, Conference Coordinator

John Bednarowski, APSE president for 2018-19, is the longtime sports editor at the Marietta Daily Journal in Georgia. He also started the APSE Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit that runs the APSE Fellowship Program and organizes fundraising efforts. He also previously was the APSE Southeast Region chair and third vice president.