Summary
Work History
Education
Skills
Affiliations
Timeline
Awards
FELLOWSHIPS
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Larry Graham

Perrysburg,OH

Summary

Editor, journalist and nonprofit leader with 15+ years of experience building programs, directing editorial strategy and growing digital audiences. Founded a national nonprofit that’s helped 103 journalists get hired, promoted and developed through targeted training and mentorship. Previously ran communications and content operations at an educational news nonprofit for a national newsroom transformation initiative. In earlier newsroom roles, led digital strategy, authored workflows, and boosted referral traffic. Known for building what doesn’t exist, fixing what’s broken, and making impact measurable.

Work History

Executive Sports Editor

The San Diego Union-Tribune
  • Managed a team of 22 journalists
  • Planned and executed daily NFL, MLB, college football and minor league soccer event coverage
  • Coordinated daily coverage for print, online and television
  • Improved our digital reach three years in a row
  • Collaborated with advertising and marketing to increase revenue

General NFL Editor

ESPN
  • Spearheaded coverage of the AFC East, AFC North, and NFC South.
  • Lead editor for Monday and Thursday night football coverage

Sports Editor

The Fayetteville Observer
  • Content editor for live coverage of ACC football and basketball.

Assistant Sports Editor

ThisWeek Newspapers
  • Supervised a staff of 13. Edited and assigned content.

Preps Copy Editor

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
  • Managed preps content. Responsible for layout and managed freelancers.

Sports Editor

The Lima News
  • Content editor for high schools and The Ohio State University.

Assistant Sports Editor

The Oshkosh Northwestern
  • Beat reporter for the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Assistant Managing Editor, Digital Strategies

The Blade
  • Created the newsroom’s multi-platform and breaking news protocols
  • Improved referral traffic by 1.4 million users

Founder, CEO

The Diversity Pledge Institute
  • Placed 73 journalists in new roles while providing ongoing support and training
  • Partnered with 34 newsrooms, 24 different media publishers
  • Provided hundreds of journalists (entry-level to executive leaders) with free mentorship, skills training and support

Faculty Associate Professor for Sports and Media

Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University
  • An exploratory course on why great sports journalism is essential to our society and vice versa

Deputy Director of Local News Transformation

American Press Institute
  • Coordinated and oversaw the communications strategy for Table Stakes, a change-management program that coaches leaders of local news organizations across the country
  • Managed the editorial calendar and content for betternews.org

Education

MA - Media Solutions and Innovation

West Virginia University

BA - General Music, Classical violin

Loyola University New Orleans

Skills

  • Adobe Creative Cloud
  • Airtable
  • Caspio
  • Chartbeat
  • HTML
  • Google Analytics
  • Mailchimp
  • Omniture
  • Project Management
  • Quickbooks
  • SEO
  • Squarespace
  • Staff Development
  • Strategic planning
  • WordPress
  • Workflow planning

Affiliations

  • APSE Foundation founding board member
  • Investigative Reporters and Editors
  • National Association of Black Journalists
  • Online News Association

Timeline

General NFL Editor

ESPN

Assistant Sports Editor

ThisWeek Newspapers

Preps Copy Editor

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Sports Editor

The Lima News

Assistant Sports Editor

The Oshkosh Northwestern

Assistant Managing Editor, Digital Strategies

The Blade

Founder, CEO

The Diversity Pledge Institute

Faculty Associate Professor for Sports and Media

Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University

Deputy Director of Local News Transformation

American Press Institute

BA - General Music, Classical violin

Loyola University New Orleans

Executive Sports Editor

The San Diego Union-Tribune

Sports Editor

The Fayetteville Observer

MA - Media Solutions and Innovation

West Virginia University

Awards

2018 Associated Press Media Editors Innovator of the Year finalist — NewsSlide

2018 Associated Press Sports Editors Writing and Section Contest Top 10 Best Multimedia

2014 APSE Contest Best Daily Sports Section over 175,000 circ. — honorable mention 

  • Best Website over 2 million uniques

2013 APSE Contest Top 10 Best Sunday Sports Section over 175,000

  • Best Project
  • Best Website over 2 million uniques

FELLOWSHIPS

  • Poynter Institute’s Media Transformation Challenge program
  • 2023 Maynard 200 Fellowship
  • 2021 NewStart Media Transformation Fellowship
  • Poynter-NABJ Leadership Academy for Diversity in Digital Media
  • Sagatica Executive Coaching on Conscious Leadership