Press Releases

01/15/2009

AP names new sports columnist; Seward leads Paris

NEW YORK (AP) -- John Leicester, The Associated Press bureau chief in Paris, will become international sport columnist, and Deborah Seward, a Paris-based special international editor, will succeed him leading the cooperative's news coverage in France and parts of North Africa.

The announcements Thursday were made by AP Sports Editor Terry Taylor and John Daniszewski, managing editor for international news.

In addition, correspondent Angela Charlton will now become news editor for the bureau, reporting to Seward.

"We are delighted that through his columns, John Leicester's voice will be part of our international sports report. This adds a new dimension to our coverage -- one that we believe will enhance the work of our talented sports staff," Taylor said.

"John is a consummate newsman and leader, with a witty style and a keen eye for new angles," said Daniszewski.

"I am also pleased to announce this new role for Debbie Seward, who has been invaluable as one of the main drivers of change in the AP, including the project to regionalize AP's global editing structure and develop faster story forms and better cohesion among television, text and photo journalists," said Daniszewski. He said Seward planned to continue many of her special editor duties while bureau chief.

Seward, 52, joined the news cooperative in 1988 in Warsaw, Poland. She transferred to Berlin in 1990 and then to Moscow in 1991, becoming news editor there in 1994. After a year as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, she joined AP's Paris bureau in 1997, where she was named news editor in 1999. In 2000 she transferred to Moscow as chief of bureau. Seward served as The AP's international editor in New York from 2003-2005.

After two years as executive producer at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's newsroom in Prague, Seward rejoined the AP as special international editor for restructuring, innovation and training in Paris.

Early in her career, she worked at Newsweek magazine, in Paris, New York and Bonn, Germany. A Connecticut native, Seward earned a bachelor's degree in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1978, followed by graduate studies at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris.

Leicester, 41, joined AP in 1993 in Hong Kong. He transferred to Beijing in 1996, serving as correspondent and later as news editor there. He transferred to Paris in 2002 and was promoted to bureau chief in 2005.

Leicester, a graduate of the University of Leeds, England, has in recent years also been a key contributor to AP's coverage of the Olympics and the Tour de France.

Charlton, 37, joined AP as a reporter in Moscow in 1994. She worked in Kiev, Ukraine, Charleston, West Virginia and as an editor on the International Desk in New York. She returned to Moscow in 1998. Charlton left AP in 2002 and worked as a travel writer before rejoining the news cooperative in Paris in 2006.

Charlton is a graduate of New York University.