By NICK MOSCHELLA
Palm Beach Post

Tim Burke's morning routine hasn't changed much. Drops his daughter off at school. Settles into a booth at his favorite greasy spoon. Coffee. Toast. The Palm Beach Post.

But there's one variation since The Post promoted Burke from executive sports editor to deputy managing editor. ... and, no, he hasn't added more fiber to his diet.

Instead of poring over the sports section before breezing through the rest of the paper, he now wades through national, state, local and business news before glancing at sports and heading to the office.

"I've learned more than I ever thought I would about impact fees," Burke said. "Impact fees are the salary cap of the news side."

Burke is part of a growing trend of sports editors moving over to what Tampa Tribune managing editor Duke Maas calls "the real world."

"My world started spinning a little faster in February," said Maas, who became the Tribune's ME after four years as sports editor.

What in the name of Woodward and Bernstein is going on with more and more newspapers putting sports guys in charge of newsrooms?

Dan Cunningham knows.

The Houston Chronicle's longtime sports editor became deputy managing editor last summer under an executive editor's mantra that would make for a trendy journalism wristband.

What Would Sports Do?

"A new editor came in and shook things up, but he left sports alone," Cunningham said of his pre-promotion experience. "He was always talking about bringing a sports mentality to the rest of the paper. He kept saying, 'Let's cover this or that like sports would.' "

Cunningham, who has spent 28 years of his career in sports departments with a pair of one-year stops in news, started his new job with a simple sports-related approach: Stay on top of news for seven days instead of basically closing shop on Friday.

"The Sunday operation used to be done by Friday with a little tinkering over the weekend," he said. "Now, we're trying to do more things live, staff Sunday and Monday like the rest of the week. Give everything blanket coverage ... not just stories, but graphics and charts on the fly."

Nice start, but Cunningham's first big challenge was soon figuratively and literally churning toward Houston.

When mayor Bill White opened his city's doors and hearts to Hurricane Katrina evacuees, Cunningham and Co. had to immediately ratchet up the Chronicle's already well-planned coverage of the storm.

Not to compare tragedy to trivial pursuits, but Cunningham said of the post-Katrina developments, "It was like a Super Bowl with no chance to plan it."

Cunningham's approach included the same touches used in his 16 years running the Chronicle's sports department. Be particular about stories and inform and explain through graphics, charts and timelines.

Maas' first news-side "Super Bowl" also was a doozy — the Terri Schiavo case exploded in Tampa before Maas barely had time to hang a photo in his new office.

"My baptism under fire," he said. Maas has previously worked on news side at other papers, but he leans on his sports background.

"So many experiences of running a sports department prepare you for a move into a managing editor job," he said.

"First, you deal with so many other departments — graphics, photography, circulation. Then, there's always big-event coverage and you're always in that breaking-news mode."

Maas quickly realized, though, that he no longer can be as hands-on in his approach.

"I'm the type of guy who likes to roll up my sleeves and get involved, put the whole package together," he said. "Not that you want to micromanage, but I had the ability as the sports editor to do things closer to the front lines."

Now, he said, "there are layers of supervisors along the front line."

Those layers have been a frustration for Cunningham, who is looking to knock down a few walls in the newsroom.

"In sports, you have more of a sense of, 'We're all in this together,' " Cunningham said. "Here, you've got different departments, turf battles. National is into national. World is into world. The state people are pushing their stories.

"Sports pushes its own stuff, but there's more camaraderie."

Burke, too, is trying to bring departments together under his watch.

"In sports, if we wanted to do something one day, we went for it and did it," he said.

"There weren't four different departments to coordinate — we just went ahead and did it."

Burke spent about 22 years in sports departments, including 11 as sports editor at The Post. But it didn't take long to understand one glaring difference in coverage.

"One thing I like over here — and there's a lesson in this for sports sections — is that we can do more things on a consistent basis that can directly affect peo-ple's lives," he said. "There's a certain charge that goes with that."

Still, Burke often misses the rush of a sports event.

"The adrenaline . . . even though the games don't really mean anything, every day in sports there's an outcome, the anticipation about what will happen, who will win," he said. "Even as you're putting out the paper, you don't know what you might have to do, how you might have to react."

Burke, a former APSE president, plans to stay involved in the organization, and he'd like to see more involvement from other former sports editors who have moved to news.

"I think, historically, there's a lack of understanding and knowledge about APSE in the rest of the newsroom," he said.

"You see that when we invite a speaker to the convention and they're somewhat clueless about what we are, what our problems and issues are. They speak corporate-speak and nobody listens."

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