Opening
From the Marriott SouthPark, Charlotte, N.C., Thursday, June 20, 2024
President Naila Meyers calls the meeting to order at 1:06 p.m. and introduces First Vice-President (and incoming president) Dan Spears, Second Vice-President Paul Barrett, Third Vice-President Ed Reed, Executive Director Bill Eichenberger and Conference Coordinator Glen Crevier.
Past presidents in attendance
- Jorge Rojas, The Athletic (2022-23)
- Gary Potosky, The Philadelphia Inquirer (2021-22)
- Lisa Wilson, The Athletic (2020-21)
- John Bednarowski, Marietta Daily Journal (2018-19)
- Tommy Deas, then Tuscaloosa News (2016-17)
- Mike Sherman, then The Oklahoman (2014-15)
- Phil Kaplan, then Knoxville News-Sentinel (2010-11)
- Jim Jenks, then Philadelphia Inquirer (2006-07)
- Glen Crevier, then Star Tribune of Minneapolis (2005-06)
- Bill Eichenberger, then Newsday (2003-04)
Region representatives
Northeast: Connecticut, Delaware, D.C., Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia. – Jim Pignatiello, Jane Havsy
Southeast: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. – Justin Pelletier
Midwest: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin. – Erik Hall
West: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming – Paul Barrett
Representing the Associated Press: Oscar Dixon and Barry Bedlan
Finances and budget update (Bill Eichenberger)
We continued to buck the industry-wide trend by growing a little bit in membership by three additional primary members and by meeting our budget, which as you guys know anybody in journalism these days is pretty unusual. But the budget came in pretty much on schedule. Thanks to Naila. Very smart about putting together the panels this year, capitalizing on the local talent.
Also we have a member who doesn’t want to be identified but has stepped up in the goodness of his heart to help us meet the budget. He’s in the room, but I’m not going to identify him. But I thank him with my heart.
Conference update (Glen Crevier)
I have a few announcements. We have a welcome reception tonight in the terrace ballroom, go through the bar in the kitchen area. That is sponsored by Professional Bull Riders. Please give them your attention when they have the floor.
We have another reception tonight sponsored by NASCAR. We will have transportation. The buses will be here by 5:30 tomorrow night to take us to the hall of fame. The reception will go from 6:30-9:30. At about 9:30 the buses will return us to the hotel.
The WiFi here at the conference is Marriott202406.
One other thing I wanted to mention is if you are getting a plaque but are not attending the awards dinner, please see me, and I’ll get you a plaque. My goal is to leave the conference without any plaques.
Big thanks to Naila, Bill and John Bednarowski. Without them getting this conference organized would have been very difficult.
Revenue (Tommy Deas)
Our sponsorship for this event has really exceeded expectations given that we’ve shortened the conference by a day and have less inventory – which is to say, less things to sponsor. I want to give a big thank you to Glen Crevier and Bill Eichenberger for their work in this area, which has been above and beyond.
We have raised $49,500, which does not include NASCAR paying for our reception at the Hall of Fame. With the cost incurred by NASCAR for the reception added, it puts us above $70,000 in total value of sponsorship for this event.
Since 2018 when I took over the revenue committee we have raised $440,000 and that’s without an event in 2020. So hopefully by next year, we will hit $500,000.
I’d like to thank and recognize our sponsors for the 2024 Summer Conference: NASCAR, Associated Press, Perfect Game, Professional Bull Riders/PBR, The Athletic, ESPN, NHL, MLS, Los Angeles Times, Sporting News, MLB and the APSE Foundation. Without them, I’m not sure we’d be here.
Thai Night/Mini golf (Tommy Deas/Justin Pelletier)
Most of you know that Thai Night has become an APSE conference tradition. It will be observed this year on Thursday at around 7:45 p.m. at Thai Taste at 324 East Boulevard in Charlotte.
It’s a pay-you-own-way evening of fellowship and Thai food.
We will need to use Uber/Lyft or other conveniences to get there. It’s about a 15-minute ride from the hotel, so everyone will need to gather in the lobby about 7:15 to get us organized and get rides ordered.
It will help to have a head count as we need to give the restaurant an idea of how many to prepare for, so if you know you’re coming (or think you probably will), please email Tommy Deas at tdeas@gannett.com. Use ‘Thai Night’ in the subject line please.
After Thai Night, many of us will proceed to mini golf nearby at The Puttery for fun and sporting competition.
Likewise, Justin Pelletier needs a head count, so if you plan to see how your short game stacks up, email him at jpell915@gmail.com with Mini Golf in the subject line.
We look forward to seeing, dining, and putting up with everyone who cares to come along.
TIDES report (Naila Meyers)
We had a poor response to the TIDES survey we sent out in the spring. The last time we did this, in 2021, more than 100 newspapers and websites responded to the survey. At last count, we had only 47 surveys returned this time. Another round of emails is going out to sports editors who didn’t reply. But with so many of us gathered here this weekend, there are several of us here who can walk you through filling out the survey if you haven’t already. Those people include me, Jorge Rojas and Lisa Wilson. I will ask Sherrod to help when he gets here too.
APSE Foundation (Lisa Wilson)
Say hello to our 12th class of Fellows, and please stand if you’re here:
- Callie Lawson-Freeman
- Lauren Jennings
- Lauren Campbell
- Mallory Merda
- James Jackson
- Wilton Jackson
They’ve enjoyed quite a year, starting with Diversity Weekend (and an ill-timed snow storm) in Nashville, the winter conference and judging in Orlando, Lauren Campbell and James Jackson attended the commissioner’s meetings in NYC and the class will graduate on Saturday at the awards banquet.
When you support the APSE Foundation, you support diversity programming as well as our current and future classes of Fellows. This week we have a silent auction, bidding begins Friday morning. Roxanna Scott’s wonderful idea, I’ll let her preview some of the items that will be up for bid..
We welcomed Roxanna Scott to the board this past year and will say farewell to Gary Potosky as outgoing president Naila Meyers begins her two-year term.
Donn Walden Leadership Grant
The second Donn Walden Leadership Grant recipient is Andrew Abadie of the Pine Belt News in Hattiesburg, Miss.
Other summer journalism conferences
AWSM: AWSM held its annual convention online and will be switching back to in person next year. Illiana thanks APSE for its ongoing support of the organization.
NAHJ: The NAHJ Sports Task Force is thrilled that the upcoming NAHJ convention July 9-13 in Hollywood, Calif., will feature more sports programming than ever before. We have at least three mixers planned, so please reach out to Iliana Limon Romero if you will be attending the convention so we can get you invitations to those events.
NABJ: National Association of Black Journalists convention is July 31-Aug. 4 at the Hilton Chicago. The early bird deadline was June 1.
AAJA: The Asian American Journalists Association’s 2024 annual convention will be held Aug. 7-11 at the Hilton Austin. The early bird registration deadline was yesterday.
NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists convention is Sept. 5-8 at the Loews Hollywood. Early-bird rates are in effect until Aug. 12.
Committee reports
Diversity (from A. Sherrod Blakely)
The Diversity Pledge continues to be a valuable tool in APSE’s efforts to foster a more diverse workforce that is a better reflection of the communities we serve. Since our February meeting, Sherrod Blakely reports we are averaging just under two openings under the Diversity Pledge umbrella, per month.
This builds off the success we have seen dating back to January of 2023, when a year-to-year analysis showed more than 50 percent of those companies that took the Diversity Pledge hired a qualified candidate from a diverse or historically marginalized community. And that does not factor in the job offers made to diverse candidates, that they respectfully declined to stay with their current employer, or jobs that are currently open which include diverse candidates still under consideration.
The challenge between now and our next meeting is to continue increasing the monthly diversity pledge average to at least two per month and continue to build off the strong numbers of those hired via the diversity pledge.
In addition, candidates who are not hired, Sherrod is creating a database so that when openings occur in the future we can make recommendations to news organizations and expeditiously get that potential candidate’s information in the hands of decision-makers.
One area to look at expanding our reach externally and our connectivity as a diverse group internally, involves our APSE Student Chapters. Sherrod Blakely is in the process of creating an APSE Student Chapter at Boston University for the 2024-2025 academic school year.
The APSE student chapter at Boston University held its first informational meeting last spring, with 16 students in person and two additional students interested in joining but at the time were studying abroad. The official word on BU’s student chapter should be coming in the coming weeks. Since then, a handful of other students expressed interest in joining the group. A stronger membership push will be made once students return to campus in the fall.
There is an undeniable buzz on the Boston University campus about having an APSE student chapter, having already caught the eye of campus media. And the attention has come with very little promotion, relying primarily on word-of- mouth messaging.
One of the things that the inaugural chapter president Stevie Potter mentioned, was having Town Hall-like discussions or meet-and-greets involving APSE members on BU’s campus. Sherrod plans to reach out to some of you in the New England area about possible dates and times for you to come visit the campus.
President Stevie Potter also wants to open up our conversations/engagements with APSE members, to other students in the New England area who may be interested in finding out more about APSE. This makes a lot of sense considering Boston University’s APSE student chapter would be the only one in New England. Sherrod Blakely will continue to keep Lisa Wilson abreast of the plans and the status of the student chapter at Boston University.
Membership (Jason Murray)
No report. If you have a calendar item for the APSE calendar, send it to him.
Regions update (Michael Kates, Gary Potosky)
Last year we reorganized our regions from eight to four to streamline leadership roles and spark more engagement and programming. The Southeast Region again had a meeting this past year, but other regions did not. There were some efforts to gather members for socializing while at big sports events that were hit or miss.
This conference marks the end of the terms for Northeast Region chair Michael Rose, West Region Chair Chadd Crippe and Midwest Region chair Kyle Nabors (who would have needed to step down anyway since he moved out of the region). Jim Pigniatello of MassLive will ascend to region chair in the Northeast, and Jason Hoffman of The Enquirer will take over in the Midwest. John Devine has one year left on his term as Southeast region chair, and Patrick Obley of the Port Charlotte (Fla.) Daily Sun has agreed to be vice chair, replacing Justin Pelletier, who is stepping down. Chris Boan has agreed to serve in the West Region.
We are in the process of recruiting volunteers for vice chair in the Northeast, West and Midwest. If you are interested, please talk to Naila, Gary Potosky or Dan Spears.
There are adjustments to the bylaws to be announced later at this meeting regarding regional leadership that may make opportunities available to others seeking roles in this organization.
Career advancement (Lisa Wilson)
We held four sessions with our student chapters and student members during the academic year, starting with our annual How To Land/Navigate an Internship panel with Leon Carter of The Athletic, Aria Gerson of the Tennessean and Tommy Magelssen of the Dallas Morning News. We will have this session again this fall, and we have a spreadsheet of internship opportunities that we update. If your organization will be posting for interns this coming year, please share the link with me or any APSE officer. We had a Q&A with Texans beat writer Jonathan Alexander of the Houston Chronicle and Bryan Graham, head of global video at The Athletic. President Naila Meyers and I hosted a Q&A with our Maryland chapter as it prepares to reboot under chapter president Ryan Martin, an incoming sophomore.
I’ve been connected with the incoming leadership at North Carolina A&T, president Nina Monsanto, a junior, and vice president Xavier Burton, who will be a sophomore, and I’ll be reaching out to our chapter advisers in the coming weeks to do some planning for the fall.
We welcomed Florida and Ohio State as new chapters this past year and look forward to adding Boston University and Tennessee this coming year. I’ve also stayed in contact with Morehouse in hopes of finally adding them as a chapter.
I’m also selecting pairings for our APSE mentorship program. Mentors and mentees set their own schedules to talk, but we recommend meeting at least once a month. Pairings officially last from summer conference to summer conference, but we hope the relationship continues well beyond that. If you would like to be paired with a mentor, please see me this week or reach out at lisabellwilson46@gmail.com. If you would like to serve as a mentor, the same applies, see me this week or email me. Your time and commitment is always greatly appreciated.
Finally, there will be an opportunity to have your resume critiqued and work samples reviewed at Saturday’s career session that The Athletic is hosting. If you’re interested, it would be helpful (but not mandatory) to get them in advance. Please see me this week or email me.
Scholarships (Phil Kaplan)
Committee still reviewing, and I’ll be sitting down with the man himself this week, Garry D. Howard, to pick those two scholarship winners. We’ve been able to award two HBCU students with scholarships since its inception in 2021 thanks to the generous matching donations of Garry’s friends Eulice Payne and Jeff Price.
Commissioners (from Hank Winnicki)
We had very successful commissioners meeting back in May. Want to thank everyone who attended. Strong showing for the meeting. There’s strength in numbers.
Going to do my best to nail down the dates for next year as soon as possible.
Legal affairs and ethics (from Gerry Ahern and John Cherwa)
No report.
Olympics (Roxanna Scott)
It feels a little weird to be talking about 2026, but Feb. 6 is the opening ceremony in 2026 for Milan in Italy. The USOC will begin taking numbers for credentials on Oct. 7. So very soon after the Paris Games. Then February of next year is when they begin the process for that. If you have any questions you’ll need to talk with me about that.
Red Smith (Matt Pepin)
Matt Pepin of the Boston Globe will take over for Rachel Crader as the coordinator of Red Smith Award voting next year.
Congratulations to this year’s honoree, Bill Plaschke. The five journalists who finished behind him in the voting are automatically nominated for next year’s award. They are Tom Boswell, Mark Whicker, Hal Bodley, Garry D. Howard and Dan Shaughnessy.
Website/social (Paul Barrett)
We joined Instagram at @apsportseditors. We updated the membership directory to clean out some outdated entries. We added a resources page with links to style guides and other tools for sports journalists, and a scholarship page, which explains the kind of financial support we offer and recognizes the people those awards are named after. That may turn into a fundraising page in the future.
Jake Adams, with help from Damon Sayles, has been producing our newsletter, which has come out roughly quarterly. We are working with Andy Rhinehart to find a more efficient way to do sends and sign up.
Contest (Dan Spears)
Thanks to everyone who helped far and wide, near and far for this year’s contests. Right around half of our award winners (or someone from their organization) will be here on Saturday night to get their plaques. I still have certificates to finish, and I hope that’s done soon. I’m ready to put a bow on that thing, type up my notes and pass them on to Paul.
If there’s anything specific about the contest you’d like to bring up, please use new business time, or talk to Paul and me about it. Last year at this conference led to a new category in the 2023 contest, so it’s always worth discussing.
The Billie Jean King Award contest is coming to its close as well. We had a host of judges both from inside APSE and outside our organization this year. More than half the total judges were women, which I was very excited about. We’ll definitely continue outreach on social media beyond our normal channels for that in the future. We also received great feedback from our judges on how to make improvements for the 2024 contest.
It really was an honor being part of this inaugural award, and I think we did a good job of getting from start to finish without a true roadmap for it. It’ll only get better the second time.
Student contest (Iliana Limón Romero)
We’re announcing our annual student contest winner this week. We had another strong year of interest and entries from around the country with a very impressive top 10.
With the success of the contest and growth in number of entries, limited number of sports-specific student contests and a desire to grow APSE membership, I plan to pitch expansion of the student contest to the incoming president and contest chair. Offering at least one more opportunity to place could be a big boost for the organization and for students seeking endorsements of their work.
If we expand, we may form a small scholarship committee to help run the contest. We’ve had a lot of volunteer judges so far, so I’m confident we would be able to share the workload.
Old business
Congratulations to Perryn Keys and Tony Maluso on their elections as second and third vice president. You will see them up here on the dais for the closing meeting and awards banquet.
Lisa thanks Ed Reed for taking over as third VP and has served this organization very well.
New business
Partnerships (Naila Meyers)
We are constantly talking about increasing the value of APSE membership, and one way to do that is adding perks, gaining group access to certain tools and products that would help us do our jobs. I have been asked by my own reporters whether there is a more affordable way to subscribe to TruMedia, which offers a robust statistical research tool with data analytics, visualizations and video for NFL, MLB and college football in particular.
Most of us individual member organizations can’t afford this expensive service on our own, though I know some of you have it. APSE on its own as an organization can’t afford this service. But we might be able to get an APSE member subscription that could reduce those per outlet costs if we had enough interest.
Whether we pursue this particular service or not, we should consider what other perks to APSE membership might be out there.
Bylaws (Naila Meyers)
As I wrap up my final week as APSE president, I have bylaw proposals to make. Every APSE president’s rite of passage! These proposals involve membership, leadership positions and duties in order to bring our bylaws more in line with the current realities of our business and with how we have in practice been handling many of these decisions in recent years.
Members of the executive committee need to vote on these at this meeting and at the closing meeting. I’m going to start with the two smaller ones to try to get those done quickly before dealing with the membership changes, which might require more discussion. I am suggesting we vote on these three proposals separately.
First on duties of officers, regarding contests.
Section D of Article 4 on Duties says that “The first vice president is responsible for making and amending rules for the APSE contest” and that “The president will administer off-site judging for the contest. The second vice president will assist the first vice president and the president in administering the contest, as needed.”
Proposed change: The first vice president is responsible for making and amending rules for APSE contests.
Proposed change: Strike the sentence on the president administering off-site judging, and adding the president to the following sentence: The president, second vice president and third vice president will assist the first vice president in administering the contest, as needed.
Reason for changes: APSE now offers more than one contest and may offer other contests in the future, and most of the judging is done remotely now, and the president has not administered remote judging for a few years now.
Executive Committee vote on by-law change: 11 yes, 0 opposed.
The second proposal involves regional leadership.
Section I of Article 4 says, “The method of election of vice chairs, which occurs every two years unless it is necessary sooner because of resignation, will be determined by regional membership with the approval of the APSE president.” It also says, “A regional chair or vice chair should be a working APSE member from the region.”
Proposed changes: Changing “method of election of vice chairs” to “method of selection of vice chairs.” And: A regional chair or vice chair should be an APSE member either working or living in the region.
Reason for changes: We have had many uncontested elections in recent years, and have had trouble recruiting candidates for regional positions. This small letter change would allow for the appointment of region vice chairs, which is already happening. Also, the realities of remote work mean that editors sometimes don’t live in the same region in which they work, or in the region their publication is based. We need flexibility in the bylaws to allow those interested in leadership to serve.
Executive Committee vote on by-law change: 11 yes, 0 opposed.
The last set of changes involve our membership guidelines. Many of them are out of date and do not accurately reflect the current realities of print journalism. APSE also has not always been following these membership bylaws to the letter in recent years, and the dues structure and membership bylaws don’t fully align.
Under Section A, of Article 2 on Membership, the bylaws currently say this about who is eligible to become member organizations:
1. Newspapers that print no fewer than three days a week, and their associated websites.
Proposed change: I am proposing that we remove the frequency of print publication as a requirement of full membership. We have had organizations who print only weekly apply for, gain membership, and enter the contest. Making this change now would also mean we don’t have to adjust this again in the future.
Under “The following are eligible to become individual members of APSE,” it says this regarding alumni:
2. Former members of APSE who were members under 2 (A), but are no longer working in a sports-related job. This includes retired journalists who shall be considered alumni members.
I am proposing this change: Former members of APSE who were members under 2 (A), but are no longer working in a sports-related job or moved to a non-member organization. This includes retired journalists who shall be considered alumni members.
Regarding students, it says:
3. Full-time students who write for college newspapers or their websites.
I am proposing this change: Full-time students who are interested in a career in sports journalism. …
Regarding “national sports publications,” it says:
6. Writers and editors employed by national sports publications that publish in print on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, or publish daily or regularly within a week on an affiliated website.
I am proposing we strike this bylaw because it no longer applies. “National sports publications” like ESPN, Sports Illustrated and The Athletic have been full members for years through their websites. From my research, this bylaw originated in 2011, when there was “no consensus” that national sports publications like SI and TSN being member organizations was a “good thing.” It appears there were concerns about national publications entering the contest, but we have largely dealt with those concerns through contest rules rather than bylaws.
Regarding newspapers that publish less than three days a week, it says:
7. Writers and editors who work for newspapers that publish any number of times a week.
I propose striking this.
The bylaws do not have anything about writers for non-member organizations eligible for membership, even though we technically have a writers wing and have category of membership for that. So we need to decide whether we want writers to create eligibility for writers (and editors?) for non-member organizations to join as individuals. Such a bylaw could say this:
6. Writers for non-member organizations that apply generally accepted newsgathering practices, as defined by the executive committee, and are not operated by professional or amateur sports organizations.
Executive Committee vote on by-law change: 11 yes, 0 opposed.
2026 Summer Conference (Dan)
The Summer Conference that year will run directly into the World Cup, which runs from June 11-26 prelims and June 27-July 15 knockouts
Cities are **Seattle San Fran, LA, KC, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Boston, Philly, NYC** … Will you likely be able to attend a conference in these dates?
We already have an interested bid from Atlanta, but it’s right at the start of the tournament, starting June 11.
Because of the World Cup conflict, we will likely make our decision on the 2026 site sooner than in previous years. If you would like to pitch your city, or a city, please talk to Glen and Dan this week.
Jane Havsy: Spring? We had 2021 in August in Las Vegas. That was partially COVID, but Glen would be the one to know why that was the date.
Erik Hall: Could do 2027 in LA to get a preview for 2028.
Jim Jenks: They did the same thing in 1994, and Alexi Lalas was the speaker. So you can choose to embrace it.
Motion to adjourn: Justin Pelletier
Second: Lisa Bell Wilson
Meeting ends at 2:13 p.m.
Attendance
Lisa Wilson, The Athletic
Erik Hall, The Telegraph
David Squires, NC A&T
Jim Jenks, Perfect Game
Bill Eichenberger, APSE
Jim Pignatiello, MassLive
Gary Potosky, Philadelphia Inquier
Perryn Keys, The Advocate & Times-Picayune
Chris Carr, Star Tribune
Jason Murray, The Washington Post
Barry Bedlan, AP
Nate Mink, The Post-Standard
Pat Obley, Daily Sun
Anthony Maluso, Capital Gazette
Tommy Deas, USA Today Network
Jane Allison Havsy, Daily Record
Andrew Abadie, The Pine Belt News
Zach Cavanagh, formerly Picket Fence Media
Maria McIlwain, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Jeffrey Perkins, San Antonio Express
John Bednarowski, Marietta Daily Journal
Oscar Dixon, AP
Oskar Garcia, The Athletic
Aaron Ferguson, Wisconsin State Journal
Glen Crevier, APSE
Wilton Jackson, APSE
James Jackson, The Athletic/APSE
Lauren Campbell, MassLive
Meredith Perri, MassLive
Damon Sayles, The Athletic
Phil Kaplan, USA Today South Network
Tom Kreager, The Tennessean
Jorge Rojas, The Athletic
Roxanna Scott, USA Today
Justin Pelletier, McClatchy Southeast
Shelby Swanson, News & Observer
Scott Thurston, Boston Globe
Hank Winnicki, Newsday
Greg Brownell, The Post-Star
Bill Speros, Bookies.com
A. Sherrod Blakely, Boston University
