Why APSE?

I seem to have missed the APSE seminars on how to steal stories from competitors and when to show up to a game just in time to get a byline.

I feel cheated.

 

Agreed. APSE gave me a paid trip to judge the contests also, and it was a very worthwhile experience for a kid just starting out. As a 23-year-old, it was pretty special to get that call from Ed Storin and have him ask you to come judge the best in the business. It almost made me feel like I could make it as a sportswriter. That week was one of the highlights of my short career.

 

APSE gave me a paid trip to Long Beach a few years back to judge. Great experience. However (yep, you all knew that was coming), the past three small paper VPs sent out emails introducing themselves to which I replied letting them know any help they would need, to not hesitate to email me. Not once have I ever gotten a reply back from that initial email. The APSE must do something to change the perception that it prefers to concentrate on the major-to-midsize metros. What the answer is, I don't know, but something needs to be done.

 

Can you be more specific?

 

If you feel it's helped you -- and more importantly, helped your product -- that's fine. I think there are at least two ways of looking at the whole "elevating the craft" notion. Pre-Internet, I spent the equivalent of a decent restaurant meal each week on buying out-of-town papers. There were those in the early to mid-1980s that pretty much sucked, but at least they sucked in their own unique ways. I am not so sure whether we have elevated sports journalism as much as we have homogenized it. And APSE is hardly alone in that -- we can blame SND nearly as much (if I see that fucking font one more time ...).

The contest jumped multiple sharks, from my perspective. I was all-in until about 20 years ago when APSE offered a seminar on how to do well in the APSE contest. I think they did this for only one year and it might have even been a regional thing (although that's not how I recall it), but it really stuck in my craw. And I don't know about you, but once I get a bug up my ass, it tends to grow.

Mid-1990s, I had a short stint as managing editor of a 60K daily that, oddly, was not an APSE member, although the sports section was pretty good. Kind of by knee-jerk, I made a call about joining to Storin, who I certainly respected a great deal. And then I got off the phone and thought, what the fuck am I doing? The section is not going to place top 20 as it is, and I am not going to make the changes that would put it there, because I do not believe that's what this paper needs to do in this market.

Couple years later, I was Sunday SE at a larger paper in a very competitive market and I made some changes to address that. A former colleague a thousand miles away, who was not yet but would someday become APSE president, told me, "The way you're changing it is going to hurt you in the contest." I told him I didn't give a crap if people could not see I was doing something in the best interest of the paper. (And we still got Top 20, BTW.) The bug up my ass was now the size of a Cornish hen.

We've since had the diluting of the contest to the point that I still look at the results, but I no longer scrutize them. I couldn't tell you who got Triple Crowns this year.

So I believe the APSE people have mostly good intentions and they did, especially until around 1990, elevate the business in some ways. Nowadays, though, I believe the heavy lifting is done here. Because day to day, we say what APSE can't. Or won't.

 

I see it's gone now, but I wanted to commend whoever posted the Robin shot. It worked on so many levels!

 

I'm a little late getting in on this thread, but as noted by Moddy (I believe), I am the newly-elected third veep of the APSE. That position is reserved for someone from the small news organization membership to represent the same.

If I can help anyone who is involved in APSE or wants to get involved, please contact me and let me know what I can do. My email is tommy.deas@tuscaloosanews.com.

I can only speak from my experience, but I'm a better sports editor (and hopefully just a better journalist all around) for my involvement in APSE. I initially became involved when the organization paid my freight to judge the contest, and I learned more in those few days than from any other single experience in my career. The regional meetings, at least in our region, have been helpful and the summer conferences are always mindful to include panelists from the smaller shops and present workshops that can be helpful to any news organization large or small.

I don't see a great divide between the sports editors from larger and smaller news organizations. Every single time I have ever reached out to some of the "big-boy" sports editors for ideas or advice, I've been overwhelmed with the helpfulness of the responses. Just the other day Joe Sullivan of the Boston Globe sent me some samples that I asked for to see if we can apply something they do -- on a much smaller scale, of course -- to our coverage.

If you haven't given APSE a try, I urge you to be open-minded and check it out. If you have been turned off by some aspect of the organization in the past and are willing to give it another look, I hope you will. And, as noted, if I can help please let me know.

 

Tommy Deas is a voice of reason. APSE has its flaws but I've never run into anyone I met there that didn't try to be helpful when asked. I have attended the convention for about eight or nine years, usually on my own dime. I wouldn't have kept going back if I wasn't learning something each time at the seminars. My shop has had a few successes in the contest but not on a consistent basis. I feel good when we scratch in the contest but not devastated when we don't. It is what it is.Our regional workshops also have been helpful. I'd second the motion to give it a try if you aren't a member.