Athens, Ga. -An editor who is leading the nation’s journalists through turbulent times will deliver this year’s McGill Lecture at the University of Georgia. Martin Kaiser, who is president of the American Society of News Editors, will speak on “Leading Journalists in 2009 – and Beyond.” The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 4 at 4 p.m. in room 102 of the Miller Learning Center. A reception will follow.
Kaiser’s journalism career spans three decades-as a copy boy, reporter and editor. Today, he is the editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which has won a Pulitzer Prize and a Polk Award, among others, during his tenure.
Editor & Publisher, the newspaper industry’s leading trade publication, named Kaiser its Editor of the Year in 2009, in part for his commitment to enterprise and investigative reporting during some of the industry’s worst economic times.
“Marty’s managerial genius is the ability to inspire confidence, play a hunch and put people in positions where they can succeed,” according to a profile of Kaiser in ASNE’s journal, The American Editor.
Kaiser is a graduate of George Washington University.
For three decades, the McGill Lecture has brought significant figures in journalism to the University of Georgia to help honor Ralph McGill’s courage as an editor.
McGill, while editor and publisher of The Atlanta Constitution, was regarded as the “conscience of the South,” using the newspaper’s editorial pages to challenge segregation in the 1950s and 1960s. McGill was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1958 for “long, courageous and effective leadership.”
Established in 1978, the annual UGA McGill lecture series addresses major issues impacting American journalism and is sponsored by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
The Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication offers seven undergraduate majors including advertising, broadcast news, magazines, newspapers, public relations, publication management and telecommunication arts. The college offers two graduate degrees, and is home to WNEG-TV, 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 www.grady.uga.edu or follow Grady on Twitter at twitter.com/ugagrady