SFJ reaches a record high of more than 400 members and launches a new website.

SFJ makes its membership free to support journalists through the pandemic. Our popular Excellence-in-Features journalism contest, which sees hundreds of entries every year, continues to celebrate the best in features journalism. SFJ also begins offering virtual programming.

The annual conference in Detroit is the last in-person SFJ event before the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 72 years, host cities included New York, Washington, D.C., Kansas City, Detroit, Québec, Vancouver, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Seattle and others (see full list).

The SFJ Foundation is created.

AASFE changes its name to Society for Features Journalism to better reflect industry realities as “Sunday editor” positions became less common.

The Hall of Fame launches to commemorate the 50th anniversary of AASFE.

Membership exceeds 200 people for the first time.

AASFE launches Excellence-in-Feature-Writing contest to encourage “fine writing” and awards prize money to winners.

Sheena Paterson of the Toronto Star becomes the first female president of AASFE. (See full list of past presidents.)

The membership ceiling is lifted entirely.

AASFE’s membership limit is raised to 60.

AASFE’s membership limit is raised to 50.

Garrett Byrnes, the Sunday editor of The Providence Journal and the originator of the idea to keep meeting, was elected the first president of AASFE. Byrnes shared these memories of the early group’s emphasis on honest criticism and feedback:

“(Critique) sessions, held in someone’s hotel room, involved free and frank discussion of the four or five papers involved. Usually, it was a searing experience, carried on until two or three in the morning.”

The American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors started in 1947 at the American Press Institute (API), then located at Columbia University. Seventeen Sunday editors (all men) at newspapers ranging from the Williamsport Grit to The New York Times had just finished attending a two-and-a-half-week API seminar, and they met up at the end of it to discuss their specific issues and challenges. That meeting was so successful that they agreed to meet again at API a year later — and an annual tradition was born.