Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication will host a news leadership symposium to discuss the digital challenges facing the news media. The symposium, “Managing News at the Digital Edge,” will be held March 7 from 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m. at the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries. The program is free and open to the public.
News leaders at the symposium will discuss reader, viewer and advertiser challenges in the digital news media. Panelists will discuss the challenges of integrating technology into newsrooms, the effect of technology on news and newsrooms’ transition to mobile media.
“Some of the most innovative and effective leaders of digital media will tell us how they are meeting the challenges to serve readers, advertisers and shareholders,” said Kent Middleton, head of the journalism department and interim head of the James M. Cox Jr. Institute for Newspaper Management Studies.
Symposium presenters include Amy Glennon, publisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Ron McCoy, former chief digital architect of the New York Times; Stewart Mizell III, vice president of content for Scripps Newspapers; John Reetz, owner of Media Solutions Partners; and David Payne, vice president of digital for Gannett Inc.
Grady students earning a Poynter Institute Media Leadership Certificate will be recognized at the symposium. The 14 students will earn a certificate for successfully completing an eight-week leadership program in managing digital change, a program run jointly by the Poynter Institute and the Cox Institute. Keith Herndon, visiting professor of journalism at the Grady College, is directing the leadership program and the symposium.
Registration for the symposium is due by Feb. 28. To register, email Diane Murray at murrayd@uga.edu. The free event includes breakfast and lunch. For more information, see http://www.grady.uga.edu/medialeadership.
The symposium is sponsored by the Cox Institute. Established in 1990 at the Grady College, the institute supports education that uniquely prepares students and professionals for management positions and provides funding for applied research that addresses contemporary issues confronting the newspaper industry. The Cox Institute was named for the late James M. Cox Jr. who headed Cox Enterprises and Cox Broadcasting Corporation from 1957 until his death in 1974.
UGA Grady College
Established in 1915, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication offers undergraduate majors in advertising, public relations, journalism, digital and broadcast journalism, and mass media arts. The college offers two graduate degrees and is home to the Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism and the Peabody Awards, internationally recognized as one of the most prestigious prizes for excellence in electronic media. For more information, see http://www.grady.uga.edu or follow the Grady College on Facebook and @UGAGrady on Twitter.
The Poynter Institute
Founded in 1975 in St. Petersburg, Fla., The Poynter Institute is one of the nation’s top schools for professional journalists and news media leaders, as well as future journalists and journalism teachers. Poynter offers teaching throughout the year in the areas of online and multimedia, leadership and management, reporting, writing and editing, TV and radio, ethics and diversity, journalism education and visual journalism. Poynter’s News University (http://www.newsu.org) offers journalism teaching to the public through more than 200 interactive modules and other forms of e-learning. Poynter’s website (http://www.poynter.org) is the dominant provider of journalism news, with a focus on business analysis and the opportunities and implications of technology.
