The Northeast Region had its spring meeting May 3-4 in Boston at the Globe with new sports editor Joe Sullivan (congratulations!) the amiable host. About 20 attended. We had sessions on hiring, how to improve attendance at our meetings and make them more meaningful for smaller papers, ethics, best ideas and a national update from APSE president Bill Eichenberger of Newsday.

The next meeting is tentatively set for the beginning of November in West Point, N.Y. Generally, the group comes in about noon Monday, has sessions, a dinner and comes back Tuesday morning for more sessions before wrapping up at noon. In the fall, the region is trying a new setup, which came from discussions on how to improve attendance. The group generally loses about half the attendees the second day. So the group will come in Monday night, have dinner and a speaker, then go from about 9-4 the next day.

A new vice chair, Mark Leary, from the Journal News in White Plains, N.Y., was elected. Mark Bickel of the Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal moved up from vice chair to replace outgoing chair Jeff Otterbein of the Hartford Courant. Unofficially the region also named a second vice chair, Chris Sciria of the Auburn (N.Y.) Citizen, to help with the many tasks of the region and represent smaller papers. Chris has been a longtime member of the region who never misses a meeting and we have two a year. He is putting together a survey for Northeast members and non-members.

Congratulations to Bickel, who will be a great chair because he has been a driving force as vice chair; and to Leary and Sciria, who also bring enthusiasm and knowledge to their roles. One thing Leary has us considering is a regional contest.

And, finally, about 14 of the region took the "T" into Boston to have dinner at Durgin Park, a Boston landmark. We didn't get lost, though almost did numerous times. As the organizer of the event, I thought I was going to be the first region chair to lose members at a meeting.

— Jeff Otterbein
Hartford Courant

The Duluth News Tribune won seven awards in the Minnesota Associated Press Sports Association contest, including four for reporter Jon Nowacki.

It's special section mania time in Indianapolis with the Star producing five Indy 500 sections during the Month of May. Two have been pubished already with three more to come. ... And two special Pacers sections so far with many more planned if they keep winning. ... The Star has also started work on a Pacers book that will be published if the team wins the NBA Finals.

The Chicago Sun-Times produced a 40-page (tab) baseball preview section.

— Lee Gordon
Chicago Tribune

The Intelligencer (Doylestown, Pa.) sports department produced a 28-page special section on the Phillies' new Citizens Bank ballpark. The section ran April 11. The department was also honored in April with a first-place Keystone Press Award for its Eagles/Lincoln Financial Field special section it produced in August.

The Erie Times-News had pledged $25,000 to the Erie Otters major junior hockey team in the event it successfully won the bid for the 2005 Memorial Cup, the championship tournament of the Canadian Hockey League. London, Ontario, ultimately won the bid on May 6, an event that will generate an expected $5 million to $10 million for that community. The Times-News also created a Web site in conjunction with the team to give fans a chance to find out more about the tournament, and as a portal to ticket-buying opportunities. More than 2,000 advance ticket packages were sold, in part through the Times-News Drive for '05 campaign. Erie is one of three U.S. cities with a team that plays in the OHL.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, known for its coverage of professional sports in the city, turned its editorial resources on unique local events. The Inquirer did special sections each day for the Penn Relays, one of the oldest track meets in the country featuring high school, college and Olympic-caliber competition. It was the first time the paper had attempted this type of coverage on the Relays and it was successful, help boosting circulation as much as 4,000 for the Sunday edition. The Inquirer also did tab pullout sections for the Dad Vail Regatta, an historic rowing event. All this while leading the way with almost 50 stories on local horse Smarty Jones and his run for the Triple Crown.

— Jim Jenks
Philadelphia Inquirer

Gordon Paulus, the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal's sports editor for about 10 years, resigned in March to pursue a career outside of the newspaper business. He now works in the communications department for Gulf Power Co.

The Florida Today won six first-place awards, most of any newspaper, in the Florida Sports Writers Association annual contest. Competing in the 50,000-175,000 circulation category, it won for best daily and Sunday section, and had individual winners in news (David Jones), event (Jones), feature (Scott Brown) and design (Hillard Grossman).

Danville (Ky.) Advocate-Messenger Sports Editor Larry Vaught received the Kentucky School for the Deaf Distinguished Service Award at the school's annual athletic banquet. The award recognized Vaught for faithful and meritorious service to KSD student athletes. KSD Athletic Director Paul Smiley said it had been presented to only three other people — longtime KSD coaches Arlen Finke, Roger Coyer and Judy Mohan. Vaught is the first hearing person to receive the award, Smiley said. "During my 25 years here, we have always been the smallest school in the nine-school area the Advocate covers," Smiley said. "Eighty-five percent of our students don't live in this area and their parents aren't subscribers to the paper. Yet Larry Vaught has always given us equal sports press, including features, statistics and all-area teams. We appreciate everything he's done. He truly deserves the Distinguished Service Award. If you look at a lot of the areas around Kentucky, the little schools are left out. This school is never left out."

The Monroe (La.) News-Star was named newspaper of the year by the Louisiana Press Association this month after sweeping the sports-feature category. Nick Deriso won first place, Keith Prince won second, and Brenda Young won third place in ceremonies held in Baton Rouge in May. Deriso won second place and honorable mention awards for sports columns. The newspaper also collected two first-place awards for sports photo work.

Longtime Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger sports writer Robert Wilson is leaving the paper at the end of May to publish a Christian-based high school sports magazine. Robert has worked full-time at the C-L for 22 years. He has covered high schools, colleges (USM for about five years) and tennis.

— Bob McClellan
Nashville Tennessean

The Southwest Region held its annual meeting in Austin on May 16-17. There were 42 editors and writers in attendance from 23 different news organizations.

The Austin American-Statesman played a very gracious host, allowing the group the use of its meeting room and producing the program brochure.

The program was put together by Region Chair Fred Faour of the Houston Chronicle, and it kicked off with best ideas presentation by Michael Peters of the Beaumont Enterprise. Peters' handout, which featured several ideas from papers all over the state, was a gold mine of ideas.

Other panels included one on cooperation vs. competition, moderated by Robert Cessna of the Bryan Eagle; a presentation by Corey Johnsen, president of Lone Star Park, on the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships, which will be held in Texas this year; a Q&A session with AP-Texas; and a session on covering basketball in a football state.

The latter, moderated by Sarah Hornaday of the Houston Chronicle, was one of the highlights of the weekend. American Statesman columnist Kirk Bohls and UT basketball coach Rick Barnes were the panelists. Bohls has participated in numerous panels over the years, and is always witty and entertaining. As for Barnes, he touched on several hot topics and his frank approach to the panel made his appearance one of the weekend's memorable moments.

Much of the group then adjourned to nearby Round Rock, taking batting practice at the home of the Round Rock Express, a Double-A affiliate of the Astros. No one from the group was offered a contract, but no one was injured, either. Former Longhorn and Oakland Athletic Kirk Dressendorfer provided the pitching, brushing back several of us who actually made contact.

On Monday, the day started with keynote speaker Drayton McLane Jr., owner of the Houston Astros. He discussed the off-season pursuit of Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens, and the Astros' fast start in the NL Central race. He also touched on the 75th All-Star Game, which will be held at Minute Maid Park this July.

We followed that up with a session on covering the big event, with Celeste Williams of the Fort Worth Star Telegram the moderator.

At lunch, Mark Konradi of the Dallas Morning News held a frank and open discussion on ethical issues and sourcing. We also honored all of the contest winners.

Finally, we held an election for a new vice chair. Faour pulled double duty the previous year after Richard Oliver moved from editor to columnist for the San Antonio Express-News. Peters won a very close vote over three other nominees. He will have a one-year stint as vice chair and will replace Faour as region chair after the meeting in May 2005. The primary duty of the vice chair is to run the contest.

After much discussion, we voted not to move the meeting, which comes on the heels of the state track meet. Most years it falls on Mother's Day, which makes it difficult to get speakers and guests (as well as causing at-home acrimony with the parents who attend). But we chose not to risk our attendance by moving.

— Fred M. Faour
Houston Chronicle

The Sacramento Bee and Minneapolis Star-Tribune, two McClatchy papers, worked together on the NBA playoffs. With the Kings playing Minnesota in the second round, The Bee and the Star Tribune worked out a deal where each circulation department delivers the others' paper to the team hotels (and to the sports writers) in town. On May 4, the day the series started, The Bee's special section was in the hands of all the reporters, who had flown out a day or two before, and the Kings players and coaches. Also, the TV and radio on-air talent got them, and they all mentioned it on the air.

The Bee's director of photography Mark Morris had also had an idea for an exchange program. He put mug shots of all Sacramento Kings players and coaches, two action shots of all the players (three or four of the key players) on disks and offered them to any newspaper covering the Western Conference that would offer the same from their teams. The Dallas Morning News, The Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Orange County Register jumped at the chance. It made The Bee's production of special sections much easier, since photos of the opponents so far have been in house (this was doubly necessary for both the first and second rounds, since the opponents weren't certain until just a few days before publication).

— Larry Ames
Ventura County Star