Michael Russo is an American

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

for ''

The Athletic ''The Athletic'' is a subscription-based sports website that provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. ''The Athletic'' also covers national stories from top professional and college sports ...

''. His primary beat is the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL) and the

Minnesota Wild The Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Wild competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference and play their home games at the Xcel Ener ...

. He previously worked for the ''

Minneapolis Star Tribune The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...

'' from 2005 to 2017.

Career

Russo was a vice president of the

Professional Hockey Writers' Association The Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) is a North American professional association for ice hockey journalists writing for newspapers, magazines and websites. The PHWA was founded in 1967 and has approximately 180 voting members. The a ...

and is currently the Western Conference Representative for the PHWA and Chair of the Minnesota chapter of the PHWA. He has been named "Minnesota Sportswriter of the Year" four times (2011, 2012, 2015 and 2019) by the

National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association The National Sports Media Association (NSMA), formerly the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, is an organization of sports media members in the United States, and constitutes the American chapter of the International Sports Pr ...

, which has been renamed the National Sports Media Association. In 2017, he was named the inaugural winner of the Red Fisher Award, which recognizes to the top overall beat reporter in the NHL, as voted by his peers. He has routinely been a guest on radio stations

KSTP (AM) KSTP (1500 AM; ''SKOR North'') is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is the flagship AM radio station of Hubbard Broadcasting, which also owns several other television and radio stations across the United St ...

(aka 1500 ESPN) and

KFAN (AM) KFAN (1270 AM) is a radio station licensed to Rochester, Minnesota. The station owned by iHeartMedia, and rebroadcasts sister KFXN-FM KFXN-FM (100.3 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, broadcasting a ...

. He co-hosted the show ''Russo Radio'' on 1500 ESPN and is now exclusively on KFAN. He also is an exclusive contributor to

Fox Sports North Bally Sports North is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as a Bally Sports affiliate. The channel broadcasts coverage of sporting events involving teams located in the Upper Midwest region, with a focu ...

and co-hosts a podcast called the "Russo-Souhan Show" with ''Star Tribune'' columnist Jim Souhan. Russo has a Twitter account where he tweets Wild and NHL information, @RussoHockey. He was a selected journalist by NHL.com for the 2010 Olympics, used to be a columnist for Versus.com and occasionally writes for ''

The Hockey News ''The Hockey News'' (''THN'') is a Canadian-based ice hockey magazine. ''The Hockey News'' was founded in 1947 by Ken McKenzie and Will Cote and has since become the most recognized hockey publication in North America. The magazine has a readers ...

''. From 1990–2005, Russo worked for the ''

South Florida Sun-Sentinel The ''Sun Sentinel'' (also known as the ''South Florida Sun Sentinel'', known until 2008 as the ''Sun-Sentinel'', and stylized on its masthead as ''SunSentinel'') is the main daily newspaper of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as well as surrounding Br ...

'' and primarily reported on the

Florida Panthers The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern ...

. In 2000, Russo co-authored the

Sports Illustrated for Kids ''Sports Illustrated Kids'' (''SI Kids'', trademarked ''Sports Illustrated KIDS'', sometimes ''Sports Illustrated for Kids'') is a monthly spin-off of the weekly American sports magazine ''Sports Illustrated''. ''SI Kids'' was launched in January 1 ...

book ''Rising Stars: The 10 Best Young Players in the NHL''.

References

External links

*http://theathletic.com/mn *https://www.twitter.com/russohockey *https://www.facebook.com/michaelrussohockey *http://www.nhl.com/ice/careerstats.htm Sportswriters from Minnesota Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American male sportswriters Hockey writers {{US-sportswriter-stub