By Dan Alegria
I spoke with Ed Guzman, current Deputy Editor for the Los Angeles Times and one of the original APSE Foundation Fellows. In this chat over email, Ed tells me about his experience with the fellowship, what it’s like working for his hometown newspaper and how the Times approaches coverage for its English and Spanish speaking audience. Ed also talks about NAHJ’s Sports Task Force and where to grab a bite in LA.
First off, please tell me which APSE Fellowship Class you were a part of and what organization you were with at the time?
I was in the first-ever class, 2011-12. I was at The Washington Post at the time.
Since the Fellowship, what other news organizations have you worked for?
The Seattle Times, ESPN’s Andscape (formerly The Undefeated), and currently, The Los Angeles Times
What was your experience with the Fellowship? Of the members of your class, who do you still keep in touch with or keep tabs on?
My experience was positive overall. I think being the first of anything is always going to come with growing pains, but like any good journalist, we all rolled with the punches really well. We all are connected on Facebook and other social media, so we generally keep tabs on one another.
What did you learn from the Fellowship or what impact did it make on your career?
The value of relationships no matter what you’re going through in your career. I think it’s easy to remember that early in your career when you’re trying to break in, but it was an excellent reminder to receive mid-career. The impact on my career was pretty telling and informed the path I’ve taken since then.
Tell me about what eventually brought you to the LA Times?
It was the opportunity to work for my hometown paper, plain and simple. My parents got me a subscription when I was in elementary school, and I was hooked instantly. We weren’t that far removed from the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles at that point and within the first year that I was getting The Times at home, the Lakers became the first back-to-back NBA champion in 19 years; the Kings acquired Wayne Gretzky; the Dodgers got heroic performances from Kirk Gibson and Orel Hershiser to win the World Series; and USC and UCLA football played an exciting season that featured quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Rodney Peete. And there was this amazing sports section chronicling it all! So yeah, that felt like something I wanted to be a part of when I grew up.
According to your bio on the Times website, you are an East LA native. Tell me about your experience working for your hometown paper and your takeaways from being there during such recent milestone events like the passing of Fernando Valenzuela to the Dodgers’ recent world championship?
I think any of us who have done this for any amount of time recognizes the energy and buzz of a team in your market pursuing a championship. It becomes the thing that seems to be on everyone’s mind regardless of what walk of life they’re from and they’re reading and watching everything related to the team. I’ve been fortunate enough in my career to see that in many forms, whether it was MLB, pro or college football, the NBA and MLS. But there was something about the Dodgers chasing a World Series title while I worked for my hometown newspaper that hit different. I grew up in a house in East L.A., where my parents still live, that’s five miles from Dodger Stadium. My mom took me to the parade after the team won the World Series in 1981. I understand what the Dodgers mean to Los Angeles and Southern California. That I got to be the deputy sports editor of the L.A. Times during this moment in the city’s sports history will forever be a career highlight for me. And to my earlier point, the visibility our coverage got was remarkable to see, both in the moment and after the fact as people ordered reprints, commemorative books and the like. I remain incredibly proud of our staff for meeting the moment. That alone would’ve been unforgettable, but to then have the passing of an L.A. sports icon like Fernando Valenzuela on the eve of the World Series only added to the magnitude of what we experienced during that month. With Valenzuela, we were aware something was wrong a few months prior and once we had a tip that this could take a turn for the worse, we began to mobilize our resources so that our coverage would be as comprehensive as possible when the moment came. Again, we understood the importance of Valenzuela to our readership — my parents were also Mexican immigrants — and we owed it to the audience to provide many different perspectives and reflections, and so it was critical to have as many pieces of the coverage prepared ahead of time so that if it happened as it did (during a postseason run), we were ready. I like to say that in life, sometimes the moment finds you. And I was glad myself and my boss, Iliana Limon Romero, were in the positions we were in to guide and spearhead the coverage of this moment.
With Los Angeles having such a diverse population, but a high percentage of Hispanics and Latinos, what are some examples of the ways that the Times’ sports section has reached out to both Spanish and non-Spanish speaking Latino and Hispanic readers?
Well, like the saying goes, it takes a village. And we are fortunate in our newsroom to have a team of reporters and editors who provide coverage of Southern California in Spanish (L.A. Times en Espanol). Within that group, we have two dedicated sports reporters (Eduard Cauich and Jad El Reda) who provide coverage and bolster our coverage by being at events and games that we might not typically be able to get to. Iliana and I have taken to working with them to take stories they produce in Spanish and translating them, which has come in handy recently with the FIFA Club World Cup …. Another example is being able to take content we’ve produced in English and had Eduard and Jad translate it so it’s available in Spanish for the LAT en Espanol platforms. One of our columnists, Dylan Hernandez, has produced powerful columns around the topic of the Dodgers and their silence in the wake of ICE raids in Southern California, and we knew those would resonate in Spanish as well for our community. Going back to the Fernando Valenzuela coverage I mentioned in the previous question: In addition to writing the main obituary for Valenzuela, I also interviewed Jaime Jarrin — the Dodgers’ longtime Spanish-language announcer — in Spanish for an as told to essay that was well-received. I translated and wrote it in English but then Eduard and Jad helped me produce it in Spanish as well.
What are some of your favorite things to do in LA? Someone is coming in to LA for the day and they want to know where to eat. Where are the three places you’re sending them?
Phillipe’s in downtown L.A. (though avoid it on Dodger game days; it’s a popular spot for the proverbial pregame meal). But the sandwiches are amazing, and I just love the old L.A. charm of the place — it’s been around for over a century! In my old neighborhood, I’d say El Tepeyac Cafe for the biggest burritos you’ve ever seen. I smiled last year when L.A. native Andy Reid himself mentioned this place by name to one of my reporters. And third, I’d mention Hilltop Cafe in Inglewood, a favorite of mine that’s close to our office in El Segundo.
Tell me about the NAHJ Sports Task Force? What have been your biggest takeaways from it and some of the successes that you’ve seen from it? What, if any, improvements or growth would you like to see from the Task Force? How can members of APSE and past Fellows get involved?
The NAHJ Sports Task Force is an effort that’s been driven and spearheaded by Iliana Limon Romero and Joe Rodriguez, our co-chairs. A lot of the effort and energy around it is a deep credit to them. The rest of us as board members provide support and volunteer our time to help grow this initiative. We draw inspiration from similar task forces that NABJ and AAJA have and a few years ago, we wanted to see if we could revive it within NAHJ (we are aware there have been past efforts at this). Our most high-profile moments have been during NAHJ’s national conference every year. We had a scholarship fundraiser party at last year’s convention in Hollywood and plan to do so again in Chicago in July. We’ve made pushes to make the convention more inclusive for students and young journalists by raising sponsorship money to help cover registration costs, because we see the value of networking at these conferences and it could be a matter of having a chance to be in the proverbial room. We’ve started a Pedro Gomez Award that is given out to a Latino sports journalist who embodies the spirit of Pedro. (Jaime Jarrin was a receiptient, and Sandy Nunez of NFL Network will receive it this year.) I invite APSE members to become a member of NAHJ (or renew a lapsed membership) and come find myself or Iliana to talk more about helping us with the task force. (Editor’s note: web page that has mission statement, etc. on the task force… https://nahj.org/sports-task-force/)
What would you like to see for future APSE Fellows or the Fellowship in general?
I hope they continue to find success in their chosen paths and perhaps more important, feel re-energized during what can be a crucial moment in their careers. As the industry continues to face more stubborn headwinds, we are busier than ever. So having an opportunity to take a beat and be around like-minded journalists and figure out how they can best grow and evolve in the industry is certainly something that should continue to exist in a meaningful way.