Fritz Joins Newspaper Staff As Sports Editor
October 24, 2020 at 4:04 a.m.
Fritz Joins Newspaper Staff As Sports Editor
By Amanda Bridgman-
Fritz, 59, grew up on a beef cattle and tobacco farm just outside Lexington, graduated from Western Kentucky University with a photojournalism degree and has lived in five countries. While at WKU, he was a member of the school’s Div. 1 cross-country and track teams.
After graduation, he served in the U.S. Air Force from 1985 to 1991 as a database administrator and served during Desert Storm setting up field communications.
Fritz has traveled through 53 counties and lived in Singapore for nearly 10 years and Hong Kong for nearly five. In Singapore, Fritz worked for Singapore Press Holdings, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal. His work in Singapore included news photography and picture editor; and at Reuters, Fritz was an editor-in-charge of their Global Pictures Desk. He was the supervising editor when the photo moved that won Reuters a Pulitzer Prize for news photography.
When he moved to Hong Kong, he worked for Bloomberg as a video editor in their TV financial news sector.
“In Asia, I covered a whole variety of world events,” Fritz said. “All the tsunamis, earthquakes, political strife, terrorist acttivities, pirates ... It was a lot of fun and pretty hairy on occasion. I’ve been shot at, chased and threatened many times in many languages.”
His most recent place of employment was as design editor at the Yuma Sun newspaper in Yuma, Ariz.
“Sports writing has always been something I’ve done, in addition to covering news and features,” Fritz said.
His new role at the Times-Union will be his first focused strictly on sports, and he’s excited to be here.
“Despite all the places that I’ve been, all the large, well-known companies I’ve worked for, I’ve never had the same satisfaction and enjoyment as I had at my first job at a weekly newspaper in Kentucky, where it’s the type of scenario where people appreciate what you’re doing, and they tell you so,” Fritz said. “So I’m happy to be here, because Warsaw seems like that type of community and so far I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I think smaller newspapers are only going to survive if they focus primarily on local news as opposed to wire stores, because anybody can get that on their phone, and so my coverage will be as local as possible.”
While Fritz may be a transplant here, he’s still got roots across the pond and across the country. His fiance, Evelyn, is from the Philippines and lives in Hong Kong and they have been trying to secure a fiance visa for her for quite some time. COVID-19 shutdowns stalled that process, but hopefully she’ll be joining him here soon. His future stepdaughter is studying architecture in the Philippines.
Fritz is also father to 25-year-old twin daughters Dana and Nena, and grandfather to 2-year-old Millie.
Dana resides in San Diego, where she is a United States Navy NCO in the intelligence division.
Nena, her husband Andrew and daughter Millie reside in Asheville, N.C., where Nena is employed at the Biltmore. All of them video chat frequently.
“The experience in Asia was fantastic,” Fritz said. “It made me really realize and appreciate how lucky I was to have such a rural community-based upbringing. At this point, I’m probably done traipsing around the planet and ready to stay here for a while.”
Fritz, who started two weeks ago, has already met several area coaches covering sporting events.
He encourages readers to contact him with story ideas, complaints, praise or “whatever you want to talk about, I’m all ears. Thanks to the Warsaw community for the warm welcome.”
Fritz can be reached at [email protected] or 574-267-3111 ext. 253.
Fritz, 59, grew up on a beef cattle and tobacco farm just outside Lexington, graduated from Western Kentucky University with a photojournalism degree and has lived in five countries. While at WKU, he was a member of the school’s Div. 1 cross-country and track teams.
After graduation, he served in the U.S. Air Force from 1985 to 1991 as a database administrator and served during Desert Storm setting up field communications.
Fritz has traveled through 53 counties and lived in Singapore for nearly 10 years and Hong Kong for nearly five. In Singapore, Fritz worked for Singapore Press Holdings, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal. His work in Singapore included news photography and picture editor; and at Reuters, Fritz was an editor-in-charge of their Global Pictures Desk. He was the supervising editor when the photo moved that won Reuters a Pulitzer Prize for news photography.
When he moved to Hong Kong, he worked for Bloomberg as a video editor in their TV financial news sector.
“In Asia, I covered a whole variety of world events,” Fritz said. “All the tsunamis, earthquakes, political strife, terrorist acttivities, pirates ... It was a lot of fun and pretty hairy on occasion. I’ve been shot at, chased and threatened many times in many languages.”
His most recent place of employment was as design editor at the Yuma Sun newspaper in Yuma, Ariz.
“Sports writing has always been something I’ve done, in addition to covering news and features,” Fritz said.
His new role at the Times-Union will be his first focused strictly on sports, and he’s excited to be here.
“Despite all the places that I’ve been, all the large, well-known companies I’ve worked for, I’ve never had the same satisfaction and enjoyment as I had at my first job at a weekly newspaper in Kentucky, where it’s the type of scenario where people appreciate what you’re doing, and they tell you so,” Fritz said. “So I’m happy to be here, because Warsaw seems like that type of community and so far I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I think smaller newspapers are only going to survive if they focus primarily on local news as opposed to wire stores, because anybody can get that on their phone, and so my coverage will be as local as possible.”
While Fritz may be a transplant here, he’s still got roots across the pond and across the country. His fiance, Evelyn, is from the Philippines and lives in Hong Kong and they have been trying to secure a fiance visa for her for quite some time. COVID-19 shutdowns stalled that process, but hopefully she’ll be joining him here soon. His future stepdaughter is studying architecture in the Philippines.
Fritz is also father to 25-year-old twin daughters Dana and Nena, and grandfather to 2-year-old Millie.
Dana resides in San Diego, where she is a United States Navy NCO in the intelligence division.
Nena, her husband Andrew and daughter Millie reside in Asheville, N.C., where Nena is employed at the Biltmore. All of them video chat frequently.
“The experience in Asia was fantastic,” Fritz said. “It made me really realize and appreciate how lucky I was to have such a rural community-based upbringing. At this point, I’m probably done traipsing around the planet and ready to stay here for a while.”
Fritz, who started two weeks ago, has already met several area coaches covering sporting events.
He encourages readers to contact him with story ideas, complaints, praise or “whatever you want to talk about, I’m all ears. Thanks to the Warsaw community for the warm welcome.”
Fritz can be reached at [email protected] or 574-267-3111 ext. 253.
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