NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Giarrusso, a former AP sports writer, news editor and state news executive who was instrumental in transforming the news agency’s operations, has been named AP’s global sports editor.
Giarrusso, chief of bureau for The Associated Press for Arizona and New Mexico for the past three years, will oversee AP’s sports operations and manage more than 100 journalists covering events around the world, including the Olympics, World Cup and Super Bowl. He will be based in New York.
Giarrusso succeeds Terry Taylor, who retired this month after leading the sports department for 21 years. The appointment was announced Tuesday by Lou Ferrara, the AP managing editor overseeing sports, business and entertainment coverage.
“Michael has a unmatched passion for news and sports, combined with a track record of leading profound change in the news business. His skills and experience will allow AP sports to continue to be the leader in breaking sports news and comprehensive game coverage, from the Olympics to our reports in every state,” Ferrara said.
“We are elated to have him at the helm, especially as we go into next year’s Super Bowl in New York, Winter Olympics in Russia and World Cup in Brazil.”
In addition to overseeing coverage of major sporting events, Giarrusso will be responsible for many of AP’s other core sports services and products, including the AP Top 25 college football and basketball polls, the NFL Awards, the AP All-America college teams and coach of the year award, and sports agate and box scores used by thousands of news outlets.
Giarrusso, 43, began his AP career in 1992 as an intern in the Atlanta bureau. He worked as a reporter in Atlanta and then became correspondent in State College, Pa., where he covered Penn State sports and the Little League World Series. He later served as an editor on the AP’s national editing desk in New York and was news editor for Georgia. He worked as an editor at the 2002 Winter Olympics and helped with coverage of sports events in Georgia, including the Super Bowl, the Final Four and the MLB All-Star game.
Giarrusso became state news director for the South in 2003, overseeing news operations in the 14-state region. He added oversight for the West region in 2009.
From 2007 to 2009, Giarrusso led the AP’s U.S. regionalization project, working with a multi-department team to create a new regional filing structure that moved editing functions out of New York and the state bureaus and into four regional filing centers. In 2008, he won the AP’s highest internal honor, the Gramling Award, for his work in the reorganization.
In 2010, Giarrusso became chief of bureau, overseeing business operations for the AP in Arizona in New Mexico. He also served as a product manager for the AP’s college newspaper business and its photo service for U.S. newspapers.
Giarrusso is a graduate of the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Follow Giarrusso on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MichaelG1.
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