Value Add: Issue 1

Connecting Asian Americans (& Friends) in Media & Sports

May 09, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

🌟 Note from AAJA Sports President Michele Steele
C’mon in, the water’s warm! Welcome to our relaunched monthly newsletter - Value Add - your go-to place for celebrating and connecting with the AAPI (#IYKYK) community in media and sports. Community has never been more important - and that’s what this newsletter is all about - connection, new ideas and leveling up your game. In each edition, we’ll feature a cutting-edge business, job news from our sponsors, highlight a standout reader, tell you what snacks we’re eating now in our monthly snack attack and host exciting giveaways (keep scrolling.) Happy AAPI month and welcome to the club!
Let’s do that newsletter!

🗓️ Upcoming Dates

Get Your AAJA Convention Tickets

Buy your tickets NOW before the early bird deadline for our biggest event of the year, the AAJA annual convention. AAJA Sports will be hosting 2 marquee events: our annual Korean Barbecue on July 31st and Summer Jam on Aug 1st.

  • Early bird deadline for tickets: June 4

IJA-AAJA Journalism Scholarship

The Indigenous Journalists Association (IJA) and AAJA’s Pacific Islander Task Force offers two $5,000 scholarships to help offset the cost of internships, tuition, student loans or journalism training.

AMA Anish Shroff: How to Be a Better Professional Speaker In Any Setting

Being able to communicate effectively in the workplace is directly correlated to success. Join ESPN and Panthers broadcaster Anish Shroff on being polished in professional settings and how to project confidence in front of any audience.

🚀 Stay Inspired

Asian Americans Tuning In…

  • High Sports Engagement: According to new data from Nielsen, AAPI audiences watch significantly more live sports (15% more time) and are far more likely to subscribe to sports streaming (33% more) than non-Asian audiences.

  • Amplifying Key Moments: AAPI viewership shows massive spikes for major events (e.g., 146% increase for 2024 World Series) and surging interest in women's sports (e.g., 70% year over year increase NCAA Women's BBall, 240% WNBA Draft).

  • Growing Cricket Fandom & Representation Demand: Cricket's popularity is rising (13% of US adults are fans), and a significant number of AAPI viewers want more culturally relevant advertising (37%).

The Jobs Board + Other Cool Stuff…

  • APPLY: Our partners at CBS Sports are sharing 2 opportunities: sr. digital support engineer and sr. software engineer

  • READ: Golden State Valkyries’ Natalie Nakase is now the WNBA’s first Asian American head coach - their inaugural roster includes the first Taiwanese American WNBA player, Kaitlyn Chen. Home opener against the Sparks, May 16.

  • GO: The Mets are hosting Asian American Heritage Night on May 14 learn more here. The Cubs are hosting their AAPI Heritage Night on May 28th.

    Have something to promote to an engaged audience of AAJA Sports members? Email [email protected].

🦋 Storyteller Spotlight: Joon Lee

Lee on Redefining Digital Journalism

Journalist Joon Lee launched his eponymous YouTube channel covering sports and culture in April, listen to his podcast with Richard Deitsch here. Here’s what he told us:

The Backstory: “I started making YouTube videos as a sophomore in high school — mostly reviewing tech like headphones and phone cases. It was a fun side hustle that made me a few hundred dollars a month and gave me my first taste of independent media. At the same time, I was interning at the Boston Herald and realized I was far more drawn to the human stories in sports than the specs of the latest iPhone. So by the time I got to college, I pivoted — instead of pursuing a career as a tech YouTuber, I decided I wanted to become a sports journalist.

While I was working toward that, I was also watching YouTube evolve. I saw peers — including Marques Brownlee, whom I later profiled for The Ringer in 2016 — build long-term, sustainable businesses outside the legacy media system. That’s when the lightbulb went off: this was the future of the columnist. At the time, though, sports media had barely touched YouTube — and often treated fan-made content as copyright infringement.

I spent six years at Bleacher Report and ESPN, always pitching the idea of doing journalism on YouTube. Even as I achieved personal milestones like appearing on Around the Horn, I felt a growing disconnect between what fans actually wanted and what sports media was offering. I knew I had to build something different.

“I knew I had to build something different.”

After being laid off from ESPN in 2023, I spent two years developing this channel — not just logistically, but philosophically. I wanted to create a space that was sharp, empathetic, culturally aware, and grounded in storytelling. A channel that treats sports not as entertainment or product, but as one of the few remaining cultural spaces where identity, power, and emotion still collide in real time.”

Key Learning: “The reception has been overwhelming — in the best way. What’s surprised me most is how ready people are for something different. I’ve heard from creators, longtime readers, and even total strangers who say they’ve noticed a difference in how I talk to the camera. I think that’s because I’m not trying to perform expertise — I’m trying to have a conversation. TV teaches you to talk at the viewer. YouTube teaches you to talk with them. And people can feel the difference.

“The reception has been overwhelming...what’s surprised me the most is how ready people are for something different.”

The other major thing I’ve learned is that trust is everything. Being honest about what’s broken in sports media hasn’t turned people off — it’s pulled them in. Audiences today don’t just want good content. They want to know the person behind the content isn’t lying to them. They want to believe the voice they’re listening to actually means what they say.

On YouTube, trust is the product. And creators who’ve lasted — the ones who’ve built real careers — all center that. I’m not trying to build something to sell. I’m trying to build something I can sustain. My dream is simple: I want to make smart, honest, compelling YouTube videos about sports for the rest of my career. Trust is the only way that happens.”

Financing Details: “Right now, the channel is independently owned and operated under my production company, Morning Announcements LLC. Even before I left ESPN, I was having conversations with investors — but I’ve made the decision to build slowly and intentionally.

A key part of that philosophy has been my refusal to take sports betting money. I’ve turned off gambling ads through YouTube AdSense, and I won’t do in-video reads for sportsbooks. I think gambling has compromised the trust between fans, players, leagues, and media. And from the messages I get, it’s clear that viewers feel the same. They’re tuning in because they want to believe someone again. And in a media landscape where editorial lines are increasingly blurry, clarity is part of the value proposition.

“In a media landscape where editorial lines are increasingly blurry, clarity is part of the value proposition…from a business perspective, the economics are solid.”

In the near future, I’ll be introducing in-video ad reads — similar to what you’d hear on a podcast. Conversations with brands began before the channel launched, and they’ve become serious now that the first few videos have dropped. My thesis is pretty simple: sports fans are among the most valuable advertising demos, and YouTube lets brands target them with a precision traditional TV never could.

From a business perspective, the economics are solid. The cost to produce each video is relatively low. I film in my studio apartment (thanks to the tolerance of my wonderful fiancé) and set up the lights, camera and microphone myself. I handle most of the edits myself, with some freelance support for animation and motion graphics. It’s a lean operation — but it’s built to grow. I spent time during my time off touring the studios of my friends in tech YouTube, who run multi-channel production companies with office space, employees and revenue in the millions. The low spend on overhead means the model won’t just scale, but is built to last.”


🔥 In case you missed it…

Media News Plus Bonus Sauce… Best Airport Snack

  • AAJA Sports Task Force partner ESPN has a name for its streaming direct-to-consumer product, made official at this year’s upfront presentation.

  • NBC News’ digital is leaning into sports coverage.

  • We listen and we don’t judge… Former ESPN executive Connor Schell tells John Ourand on the Varsity podcast what he would do if he were starting out now: (36:56) “It’s a creator driven world… that’s about going out and making things and trying to build an audience.“

  • Snack Attack Vol. 1: Best airport snack? Might just be the sticky, sweet and chewy Filipino carioca balls (deep fried mochi balls) at San Francisco International Airport - says one reader: “It was so good. I could have eaten 50 of them.” Check your vendor, but most cariocas are gluten free.

    Have an airport snack that we should know about? Email [email protected]. We’ll feature them in our next edition!  

🏆 Reader of the Month

Abby Chin: Celtics Reporter & AAJA Sports’ Newest Executive Board Member

 🌉 Background: This is my 12th season covering the Celtics (for NBC Sports Boston). Before Boston I made stops in Oregon, Alabama and Connecticut. My first on-air job was in Montgomery, Alabama, and to this day it is the only place I had my own segment on Friday nights: Chin Up! The graphic was glorious! AI's got nothing on MS Paint.

👑 Achievement: WISE Boston Mentor Award 2024…and Mabel, my 9-year-old daughter, starring in Little Mermaid Jr. as Flounder this weekend.

🙈 Quirk: My preferred pen is the Pilot G-2 07. I buy them in bulk and feel lost using anything else.

More on Abby  

It’s the goal of Value Add to find archival footage of Chin Up! to feature in a future issue. But until then, when you’re not watching Abby on NBC Sports, check out her “new-ish” podcast, Women’s League!

May Giveaway: Winner Gets A Brooklyn Nets Patty Mills Graphic Tee - Filipino American then-Vikings Safety Camryn Bynum mimicked what break dancer after making a game-saving interception against the Jaguars this season?

Send your answer to [email protected] to win! Random winner will be selected.

Till next time,

AAJA Sports Task Force