By TOBY CARRIG
Southeast Missourian

Ira Berkow

Ira Berkow is retiring from the New York Times after 25 years, although he says he has no intention of retiring from writing.

"I plan to take advantage of sun and sea but I do have other offers to write," Berkow said.

He said those offers include the theater and other publications.

Berkow was a part of the Pulizer Prize-winning series, "How Race Is Lived in America" in 2001, with his story on "The Minority Quarterback." He was also a Pulitzer finalist for commentary in 1988.

He has won numerous other awards in his newspaper career and his work has regularly been cited in the Best American Sports Writing anthology. In fact, he is the only writer whose work has appeared in the anthology in each of the past five decades. His 1985 article "The Lamotta Nuptials" was reprinted in the Best American Sports Writing of the Century book in 1999.

Though he has been in the newspaper business for more than 40 years, his writing hasn't been limited to newsprint. During the course of his career, he has written more than a dozen books, including the best-seller "Hank Greenberg: The Story of My Life," which in 2000 was turned into an award-winning documentary film called "The Life & Times of Hank Greenberg." His most recent book, published just last year, is titled "Full Swing/Hits, Runs and Errors in the Writer's Life."

"I've been at this for 42 years and I'm happy in my situation," Berkow said. "I'll write until I have a tombstone over my head."

It won't be all work. "I'm planning to spend a lot of my time on a balcony overlooking the ocean," he said.

In other moves:

Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail: Hired Scott Adamson, sports editor of the Anniston (Ala.) Star as assistant sports editor, replacing Rob Meyer, who went to the Roanoka Times as a sports copy editor.

Chicago Tribune: Named sports editor Bill Adee the associate managing editor for innovation, a new position charged with shaping the paper's online initiatives and preparing the newsroom to meet those initiatives. Adee, who came to the Tribune in 2002, will oversee a restructured editorial department merging the multi-media staff and the 24- hour continuous news desk and supervise all online news and feature operations.

Southern Illinoisan (Carbondale, Ill.): Named Les Winkeler the sports editor. He had been serving the paper as the interim sports editor.

Omaha World-Herald: Deputy sports editor Dave Elsesser was named the paper's presentation editor. ... Sports design director Josh Crutchmer was named the deputy presentation editor.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Promoted Lori Shontz from features writer to assistant sports editor in charge of preps and enterprise. Shontz has been a sports features/enterprise reporter at the Post-Dispatch since 2004.

Quad City Times: Assistant sports editor Mike Egenes left to become sports editor at the Bloomington (Ill.) Pantagraph. ... Copy editor Katie Kerr left to join the staff of the Northwest Herald in Crystal Lake, Ill. ... Tim Leibold has been promoted to sports news editor. ... Jon Gremmels has been promoted to prep sports editor.

Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger: Drew van Esselstyn, formerly Sunday editor at the Miami Herald, joined the staff in February as a deputy assigning editor.

Hackensack (N.J.) Record: Hired Ian O'Connor of the Journal News in Westchester County, N.Y., as general sports columnist.

Baltimore Sun: Hired Teshia Morris, Steve Bien-Aime and Steve Gould as copy editors. Morris comes from the Philadelphia Inquirer sports copy desk, where she has worked for the past 4½ years. She is a Wichita State graduate and was part of the Dow Jones copy editing intern program. Bien-Aime has worked at The News Journal in Wilmington, Dela., for the past 2½ years. He was part of the Dow Jones internship program and had internships at The New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Gould, a recent University of Maryland graduate, interned at McClatchey-Tribune News Service.

Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram: Hired two new sports clerks: John Burgess Everett, a graduate of the University of Maryland and Brenton Lemieux, a graduate of the University of Southern Maine. ... As part of a cross-training initiative in 2007, sports copy editor Bob Aube will spend the first three months of the new year working as a web producer at MaineToday.com, our paper's online vehicle.

Glens Falls (N.Y.) Post-Star: Hired Kate Fagan as a sports writer. She is a University of Colorado graduate who most recently served as sports editor of The Daily Record in Ellensburg, Wash.

New York Times: Hired Conner Ennis and Melissa Hoppert for the copy desk Ennis was with the The Associated Press' national sports desk. Hoppert was with the Baltimore Sun.

Idaho Falls Post Register: Former sports writer Steven Carse left to go back to Atlanta for a job in public relations for an insurance company. Scott Gower, a recent graduate from BYU-Idaho and a stringer at the newspaper for six months, was promoted to replace him.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Promoted Sherry Skalko from assistant sports editor to online editor. ... Kathy Laughlin moved from assistant sports editor in charge of high schools to assistant sports editor in charge of pro and college sports. ... Robyn Sortal moved from community sports editor to assistant sports editor in charge of high schools.

Orlando Sentinel: Former Sentinel intern Tania Ganguli, a sports reporter at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, joined the sports staff. She will cover high school sports, in addition to general assignment duties. Ganguli is a graduate of Northwestern University. She interned at the San Gabriel (Calif.) Valley Tribune, at Sports Illustrated and at the Sentinel before joining the Courier-Journal earlier this year. ... Michael White, a page designer and copy editor at the Columbus (Ga.) Ledger-Enquirer since 2001, joined the Sentinel as a desk editor. White attended Valencia Community College and the University of Central Florida. ... Andrew Astleford is joining the sports department as a spring intern. Astleford, a native of Dodge City, Kan., is a sophomore at the University of Missouri. ... Columnist Jemelle Hill joined ESPN. She will write for the network's Web site, ESPN the Magazine and also will appear on various ESPN shows as a regular contributor.

Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, Fla.): Hired Sam Borden as lead sports columnist. Borden was the Yankees beat writer for the New York Daily News the past two years. ... Promoted David Johnson from part-time sports position to full-time sports copy editor.

Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers: David Masters was named assistant sports editor in charge of content. Masters has worked on the sports staff of the Orlando Sentinel and Palm Beach Post.

Florence (Ala.) Times-Daily: Hired Ryan Sonner as a sports designer.

Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tenn.): Hired Dan Wolken of the Colorado Springs Gazette to cover the University of Memphis men's basketball team, replacing Gary Parrish, who moved to CBS Sportsline.com. ... Hired Scott Cacciola from the New Haven (Conn.) Register to cover Ole Miss football and SEC basketball. Marlon Morgan moved from those beats to coverage of the NBA.

Austin American-Statesman: Hired Jake Trotter as a reporter covering high schools. Trotter formerly was the assistant managing editor for sports for Cox Newspapers' community papers in Ohio. ... Longtime sports page designer Tom Widlowski has moved to the Statesman's editorial page staff. He was replaced by Lucritia Edgerton, who moved from news design. She formerly was a designer at the Amarillo Globe-News.

San Antonio Express-News: Hired copy editor Stephen Fontenot from the Waco Herald Tribune and copy editor Andrew Festa from the Augusta Chronicle.

Dallas Morning News: Named Keith Campbell deputy sports editor. ... Named Jeff Miller, Cameron Maun and John O'Rourke assistant sports editors. ... Kent Booke, Ronnie Richard and Daniel Kim joined the SportsDay desk as copy editors.

Salt Lake Tribune: Hired Jon Clifford, sports editor of Los Angeles Daily News, as deputy sports editor. ... Hired Maggie Thach, 2006 Sports Journalism Institute graduate, as a reporter covering local sports. ... Hired Chhun Sun, 2006 SJI graduate, as a reporter covering local Sports. ... Promoted Brian Holland to assistant news editor/sports. ... Promoted James Patrick to assistant news editor/sports. ... Named Michael Anastasi, managing editor/sports and features, as managing editor for sports, features and copy desks.

East Valley Tribune: Hired Peter Madrid, former assistant sports editor at the Arizona Republic, as a copy editor and content coordinator for college sports.

Stockton Record: Hired veteran ANG reporter Roger Phillips in October to cover general ssignments.

Fresno Bee: Hired Lisa Houk, the former longtime sports editor of The Bee's weekly newspaper, The Clovis Independent, to cover high schools.

Los Angeles Times: Hired Kevin Baxter from the Miami Herald as a general assignment writer. He will focus primarily on Latino issues and personalities in sports. ... Bill Shaikin, a former Angels beat writer, became the national baseball reporter and columnist to replace Tim Brown, who left for Yahoo! Sports.

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Send personnel moves to Toby Carrig by calling 1-800-879-1210 or send an e-mail message to tcarrig@semissourian.com.

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