Press Releases

05/29/2008

Haydon, Affleck named to new AP sports editing positions

NEW YORK (AP) -- 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.

The appointments were announced Thursday by Sports Editor Terry Taylor.

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," Taylor said.

Haydon, 51, joined AP's Europe and 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.