By TOBY CARRIG
APSE Third Vice President
Sports Editor, Southeast Missourian

Story posted on Aug. 25, 2008

(Region notes compiled by Mike Sherman/The Oklahoman)

The APSE Great Plains Regional meeting may be on the move.

Mike Sherman

The meeting, which took place this year on July 21 in Kansas City at the Crown Club behind home plate in Kauffman Stadium, was the first presided over by new region chair Mike Sherman, sports editor of The Oklahoman.

Sherman is seeking input for moving the meeting both geographically and on the calendar.

An April meeting may allow for more seminars involving writers, Sherman noted.

The program for this year's meeting included columnists Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman and Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, both of whom were in town for the Big 12 football media days.

The meetings traditionally have been in Kansas City for football media days, but the Big 12's rotation of its championship game also includes rotating the preseason event.

The Kansas City Royals have been part of the program, and they were again this year as they suffered a 19-4 loss to the Detroit Tigers in a game that included Tony Pena Jr.'s major league pitching debut.

Sherman offered Oklahoma City as a potential host for the 2009 regional meeting, with the possibility of tying in an NBA game. However, he also said Kansas City's location in the middle of the region is an important factor.

The meeting included sports editors from papers in Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska but none from Iowa or Colorado.

Those who want to give an opinion on the date or meeting location, can contact Mike Sherman at msherman@oklahoman.com or vice chair Mike Strain of the Tulsa World at mike.strain@tulsaworld.com.

In addition, outgoing region chair Toby Carrig passed along initial details for the inaugural Great Plains regional contest, which will include a number of writing categories and one section category with three divisions for papers under 100,000 circulation. The contest is open to both APSE members and non-member papers.

For current information, check out this pdf or contact Toby Carrig at tcarrig@semissourian.com.

More details on the contest will be available at apse.dallasnews.com later this year.

In other news:

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD: The World-Herald produced eight live sections, 12 wraparound live sections, and two standalone preview sections for the College World Series and the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials from June 14-18. The paper also provided an expanded video and online presence for the CWS. Underdog Fresno State beat Georgia in three games for the championship, earning the headline "Best in show" for the Bulldogs-over-Bulldogs truimph. The swim trials were advanced by a 20-page special section previewing each event and listing each swimmer's details. The section featured a cover story on Michael Phelps, who broke two world records during the trials.

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: As part of its Olympic coverage the Post-Dispatch has created a network of bloggers in Beijing. More than a dozen University of Missouri students from the St. Louis area are in China working for the Olympic News Service. While there, they are posting sights and sounds from Beijing for the paper.

THE OKLAHOMAN/NEWSOK: A weekly series of video shows called "The Bedlam Nation Conversation" started in August. The shows are sponsored by Dodge and will feature The Oklahoman's beat writers for Oklahoma and Oklahoma State discussing and debating the week's biggest topics. The Dodge sponsorship extends from video to our bedlamnation.com Web site – a news and social networking site for OU and OSU fans that is in the process of a redesign – and into sponsored content in print.

Mike Sherman is the chair of the Great Plains Region. You can reach him at (405) 475-3164 or via e-mail at msherman@oklahoman.com.

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