AP creates two new sports positions for global coverage

The Associated Press is
appointing two editors to new positions designed to strengthen its global sports
coverage — Simon Haydon as international sports editor and John Affleck as
sports enterprise editor.

Haydon, who will be based in
London, will be responsible for 25 reporters and
editors and will work to expand AP’s coverage of major sports outside the
United
States.
“We believe that Simon, with his
vast knowledge of sports and his management skills, is the best person to lead
the AP forward in international coverage,” said AP Sports Editor Terry Taylor.
Haydon, 51, joined AP’s
Europe-Africa desk in London in 2005. Previously, he spent 18 years
with Reuters as a correspondent and bureau chief in London, Oslo, Paris and New Zealand and in Nordic and Baltic
countries. He helped organize coverage at numerous international events for
Reuters and helped cover the World Cup for the AP before leaving last year to
become editor of a real estate financial
newsletter.
He has a bachelor’s degree in
European literature from the University
of East Anglia, England.
Affleck, who will be based in
New York, will work with sports reporters in
the United
States and around the world to develop
enterprise that adds a dimension beyond AP’s strong beat and game coverage.
Since 2001, he has supervised a team of journalists with broad topical beats
such as religion, race, families and higher education. Team members have won
numerous accolades, including the Hechinger Grand Prize for Distinguished
Education Reporting.
“We’re counting on John to have a
quick impact on sports enterprise and to lead the way for meaningful
investigative reporting,” Taylor said.
Affleck, 44, joined the AP as a
reporter in Albany in 1991. He was promoted to
correspondent in Buffalo in 1995 and two years
later became correspondent in Cleveland. Affleck covered the Summer Olympics
in Athens and Sydney and earlier this year worked on a temporary
assignment in Baghdad.
A native of Syracuse, Affleck earned his undergraduate degree from the
University of Notre Dame and received postgraduate degrees from the
University of Dundee in Scotland and Northwestern University.