Rumberg, Garcia named AP deputy sports editors

Rumberg, Garcia named AP deputy sports editors

Published Apr. 17, 2018 4:30 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) The Associated Press has named Howie Rumberg deputy sports editor for newsgathering and Oskar Garcia deputy sports editor for storytelling, helping lead the global department's efforts to report and present the most compelling sports journalism.

The appointments were announced Tuesday by Global Sports Editor Michael Giarrusso.

Rumberg and Garcia will oversee a team of more than 100 journalists reporting and editing sports news in all media formats across the world. They will direct coverage of breaking news, planned events and enterprise and will lead efforts to integrate new techniques into the core work of developing and presenting distinctive stories to AP customers and emerging audiences.

''Howie and Oskar have been key drivers for AP Sports for years, finding ways do things smarter and faster for readers and customers,'' Giarrusso said. ''With this team in place, we'll continue to innovate for AP members, providing a comprehensive all-formats report that includes breaking news, game coverage, social-friendly content and enterprise.''

ADVERTISEMENT

As deputy editor for newsgathering, Rumberg will supervise a team of sports editors around the world and will manage operations outside the United States. Garcia will supervise the four U.S. regions as deputy editor for presentation and storytelling, managing how AP's journalism is delivered to customers and on digital and social platforms.

''AP's very strong sports staff will benefit greatly from the leadership of these two journalists,'' said Deputy Managing Editor Sarah Nordgren. ''They are smart, dedicated newsmen who will push the department in all the right ways for our members and customers.''

Garcia and Rumberg have both served as assistant sports editors in the department. Together, they designed and implemented all-formats digital training for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics that formed several foundations for how the global department operates today.

Rumberg has spent all but two years of his career at the AP in Sports. He was hired as a baseball dictationist in 1999, working his way up to become one of the national baseball writers before being promoted to an assistant sports editor in 2016.

As a sportswriter, he redesigned the baseball game story, a format that is now used by AP in other major sports. As a manager, Rumberg helped build the department's video production capabilities, revamp spring training coverage and lead the AP ''All-Time Top 100'' college football project. He recently ran operations for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

Rumberg also was an original staffer of asap, the AP's award-winning department that paved the way for much of the all-formats journalism now practiced at the AP. He is a graduate of Cornell University and lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Izabela, and son, Luca.

Garcia has been assistant sports editor for the east region since 2014, directly supervising journalists in 10 U.S. states and leading AP-wide spot and enterprise coverage for several beats, most recently college basketball. He led teams on numerous breaking stories, including the NFL's ''Deflategate'' scandal, and directed a collaboration with nearly four dozen AP sports writers for a story about corruption in college basketball that was selected as the 2017 story of the year by Associated Press Sports Editors, the national organization of sports leaders at AP-member newspapers.

Garcia is a member of the AP Stylebook committee, leading several changes including a major revision of the sports chapter.

Garcia joined the AP in 2006 as an intern in Los Angeles. He worked as a reporter in Omaha and Las Vegas before becoming AP news editor for Hawaii and the Pacific Rim in 2012. A San Francisco native, he has an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a graduate degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Maryte Mercado.

---

For more AP sports coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/apf-sports

share