Meet the candidates for APSE 3rd Vice President

The election period for APSE 3rd Vice President is open. (The election period for 2nd Vice President is also open). The 3rd Vice President assumes office at the conclusion of the convention in June in Salt Lake City. Only news organizations under 40,000 circulation can vote for 3rd Vice President, and each has one vote. To vote, send your choice via e-mail to Executive Director Jack Berninger at jackapse@aol.com. The deadline is June 1. Bios of the candidates are presented below in alphabetical order:

Candidate: John Bednarowski

News organization: Marietta (Ga.) Daily Journal

Background: Began my career later in life at the age of 31, working full-time as sports editor at the St. Clair News-Aegis, a weekly paper, in Pell City, Ala. while still going to school at UAB. After leaving the News-Aegis, worked as a correspondent for both the Birmingham Post-Herald and the Birmingham News before landing a full-time position at the Gadsden Times, in Gadsden, Ala. Spent 2004-06 in Gadsden as G.A. reporter covering mainly high school and local junior colleges. In fall of 2006, moved to the Marietta Daily Journal as Sports Editor and has remained there ever since. During the tenure in Marietta, have developed Cobb Football Friday – and all encompassing preview and review of the high school football action for the 21 Cobb County high school football teams each week. The coverage includes an 8-to-12 page preview section that includes a game preview for up to 19 games in any given week. Twice a week during the football season, John serves as host of the Cobb Football Friday Web casts, with a Thursday preview show and a Sunday highlight show. In 2009, John was the Georgia Division II Columnist of the Year for the 2008 publishing year and the Marietta Daily Journal was honored by APSE with a top-10 Sunday Section Award. Led the MDJ to a 2009 APSE Triple Crown in the 20,000-and-under circulation division.

APSE experience: Current Vice Chairman of Southeast Region and member of the Newsletter committee.

Objective: To make APSE more user friendly and provide a strong voice for all the smaller papers across the country and in turn make APSE a stronger organization.

Quotable: “With the right planning, as the largest membership group, we can become a driving force in APSE and help lead the organization into the future.”

***

Candidate: Ben Brigandi

News organization: Williamsport (Pa.) Sun-Gazette

Background: I started my newspaper career as sports editor at the Lock Haven (Pa.) Express, an afternoon daily in 1996 after graduating from Penn State earlier that summer. My background trained me toward a broadcast career, but I answered a classified ad for that sports editor’s job in another newspaper because it sounded like fun. It still is. I worked at The Express for 3 1/2 years until being asked to assume the sports editor spot a half hour up the road at the Sun-Gazette, where I’ve been for 10 years. Here I do everything from run the department to working the desk to reporting on some high school and major college sports. We also cover the Little League World Series, that youth baseball tournament that is far better in person than on TV.

APSE experience: Member since 2002 and have attended four conventions, a judging, and every Mid-Atlantic region meeting since 2004. Panelist at national conventions and regional meetings about small papers covering big events.

Objectives: Keeping the small papers from getting smaller. Seeing to it the $95 annual dues are still worth it, since many must pay our own way. Making sure smaller papers have the voice they need within the organization — adding the under 20K division in the contest was a good move. Helping us stay on top of every new online mechanism we can use, all while keeping the print edition strong. Getting all Little
League coaches to add up their scorebooks before calling in.

Quotable: You realize you’re doing more with less when you look around some nights and you’re the only one in the office. Fortunately, we have each other here with APSE.

***

Candidate: Kevin Winters Morriss

News organization: Southeast Missourian (Cape Girardeau, Mo.)

Background: Started my career as a sports reporter at the Sulphur Springs News-Telegram in Sulphur Springs, Texas, then moved to the Wausau Daily Herald in Wausau, Wis. I started as a sports reporter/copy editor then was promoted to asst. sports editor. I served as acting editor for the four Gannett newspapers in Central Wisconsin for six months before leaving to earn my master’s in journalism at Syracuse University. I spent a semester working in the sports department at The Post-Standard in Syracuse, N.Y. then two months in sports at the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y., before I moved on to the Southeast Missourian. I started as the asst. sports editor in March 2008 then became sports editor in August 2008.

APSE experience: An APSE member since 2008.

Objective: I’d like to help smaller papers overcome some of the challenges we face by encouraging more sharing of content and utilizing as many resources as possible to provide readers with a comprehensive report. APSE provides a network where we can make the contacts to help each other. APSE provides the perfect place to talk with someone in the same boat as you while sharing ideas and content.

Quotable: "APSE is much more than the annual contest, and we need to do a better job of reaching out a hand to the smaller papers and showing them the ways APSE membership can help bolster their print and online reports. We need to continue to work to shatter the notion that APSE is an ‘old-boys network’ and that it benefits members at newspapers of all sizes."

***

Candidate: Eric R. Olson

News organization: Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, Ill.)

Background: Have been a working journalist 10 years, 9 1/2 of them at the Northwest Herald in Crystal Lake, Ill. (suburban Chicago). Started at the Herald as a news reporter, have been a supervising editor the past 7 years. Early editing assignments were in news. Became editor of the Herald’s business section in 2007. In February 2008, moved to sports editor. While leading sports, helped stretch the Northwest Herald’s streak of Top 10 daily and Sunday section awards to 11 years in a row. I also oversee McHenryCountySports.com, our prep sports Website which won an Editor and Publisher EPpy for best Website with less than 1 million unique visitors in 2009. Unfortunately, no one will get that chance this year. I host a weekly online show called "The Huddle" where we talk about prep and pro sports, do play-by-play of football games for our Webcasts, and I’ve "challenged" some local athletes in a just-for-fun summer video series you can see here:
http://tinyurl.com/qhbfox

APSE experience: Member for two years, I spoke at the 2008 convention in Minneapolis and had the pleasure of staying the entire weekend in 2009 in Pittsburgh.

Objective: To continue the good work Toby Carrig has done in representing the concerns, priorities, and needs of small newspapers within the organization, and to continue to help us come together to share creative ways of addressing our unique challenges.

Quotable: I’ve spent several years trying to make a great newspaper with fewer resources than most of my competitors in a crowded media market. I know our specific challenges and I know they’ve grown in the past couple of years. I can help us share the best ways to deal with them.