Seattle Times journalist named to AP NZealand post

NEW YORK – Nick Perry, an award-winning reporter for The Seattle Times, has been named correspondent in Wellington, New Zealand, for The Associated Press.

John Daniszewski, the AP's senior managing editor for international news and photos, made the announcement Tuesday.

A native New Zealander who began his career at The New Zealand Herald in Auckland, Perry has worked as a reporter in the United States for the past 11 years, most recently covering higher education issues for the Times.

He and colleague Ken Armstrong won the Michael Kelly and George Polk awards for their investigation into troubling patterns of crime and complicity on the University of Washington football team. Their subsequent book, "Scoreboard, Baby" was named as a winner of the 2011 Edgar Allan Poe Award by the Mystery Writers of America.

Perry, 40, was part of a team of reporters at The Seattle Times who won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News, for their coverage of the shooting deaths of four police officers. He was a 2011 Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan.

Perry's grandfather, Dick Brittenden, was a New Zealand cricket writer who covered the sport for some 60 years.

In Wellington, he will lead AP's coverage of New Zealand and the South Pacific and will report to the AP bureau chief in Sydney. He replaces Ray Lilley, who is retiring after 16 years at the AP, including the past 10 as AP's Wellington correspondent.

"Perry will be responsible for a huge swath of territory that contains some of the world's most fascinating places and is a trove of great stories," said Brian Carovillano, AP's Asia-Pacific editor. "We are fortunate to have someone of his talents to carry on AP's legacy of strong coverage from that part of the world."

Perry will start in June.