Journalism symposium

Gary Pruitt, chairman, president and chief executive officer of The McClatchy Company, will be the keynote speaker for the Roger Tatarian Journalism Symposium on “The Future of News” on Friday, Oct. 14, at Fresno State.

The event, which is free and open to public as well as the campus community, will be from 9:30 a.m. to noon in the Satellite Student Union (2485 E. San Ramon Ave.).

The symposium is presented by the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism and the Roger Tatarian Endowment for Journalism. The endowment was established in 1995 to honor Tatarian, the late Fresno State journalism professor who was once editor-in-chief of United Press International.

Included will be a panel discussion with three editors and a veteran reporter to explore the changes in the media. The panelists will be Susan Goldberg, executive editor of the San Jose Mercury-News; Tim Porter, a former editor who writes a blog called The First Draft; Jim Houck, assistant managing editor of the Visalia Times-Delta; and reporter Jeff Rowe of The Orange County Register.

The event is the third symposium in which top-quality journalists have been brought together to discuss media issues that are important to the public, said Tommy Miller, holder of the Roger Tatarian Chair for Journalism at Fresno State and conference coordinator.

Miller joined the Fresno State journalism faculty in 2003 after serving as managing editor of The Houston Chronicle.

“In the last several years the news has been in the news. That’s because the media, especially newspapers, are undergoing fundamental changes,” Miller said. “The online media is growing rapidly. Newspaper circulation nationwide has been declining. New words, such as blogger, have emerged in the media vocabulary, and some media watchers are even predicting the demise of newspapers. With all this change swirling around, we decided to focus the symposium on what’s ahead for the media.

Miller said the journalism department is pleased to have an excellent panel of journalists who can share their ideas and expertise.

“We’re especially pleased to have Gary Pruitt as the keynote speaker," Miller said. "As the chief executive officer of The McClatchy Company, Pruitt has been described as one of the most knowledgeable leaders in the newspaper industry.”

“We hope we have a good turnout of people who want to join the conversation about the changing landscape of the news,” he said.

The McClatchy Company publishes 12 dailies and 17 non-dailies in California, Minnesota, Alaska, Washington and the Carolinas, including The Fresno Bee. It is the tenth largest newspaper company in the United States with a combined circulation of 1.4 million daily and 1.9 million Sunday. McClatchy also operates leading local Web sites in each of its daily newspaper markets.

Pruitt, a First Amendment lawyer, joined McClatchy in 1984 as general counsel. He was named publisher of The Fresno Bee in 1991, vice president of operations and technology in 1994, president and chief operating officer in 1995, chief executive officer in 1996 and chairman in 2001.

He is a member of the following boards of the Associated Press, The James Irvine Foundation where he serves as vice chair, and the Newspaper Association of America, where he serves as treasurer, and the Mutual Insurance Company. He has served on various other committees and boards for industry, community, business, philanthropic and educational organizations.

A native of Virginia, Pruitt holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida, where he was selected as the outstanding scholar and Phi Beta Kappa. He received a master’s degree in public policy and a law degree, both from the University of California, Berkeley.

Pruitt’s talk will be preceded by the symposium panel, which will address issues facing newspapers and other media.

Miller said that this year’s panel is a strong sampling of the nation’s print journalism leadership ranging from national companies to local small dailies.

Susan Goldberg became executive editor of the San Jose Mercury-News after working as managing editor of the paper for four years.

From 1989 to 1999, Goldberg worked for USA Today, serving as a deputy managing editor of the News, Life and Enterprise sections. Before that, she was a reporter and editor at the Detroit Free Press. She began her career as a reporter at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Under Goldberg’s leadership, The Mercury-News received the 2004 General Excellence award from the California Publisher’s Association – the first large paper to win the award other than the Los Angeles Times in 15 years.

Tim Porter, an editor and writer with an extensive background in print and web journalism, is the associate director of Tomorrow’s Workforce, a newsroom development project, and author of “First Draft,” a blog on quality journalism and newsroom innovation. Formerly, he was an assistant managing editor with the San Francisco Examiner, editor of Examiner.com and editor of the Richmond Independent.

Jim Houck is an assistant managing editor of the Visalia Times-Delta, a Gannet newspaper 45 miles south of Fresno. He has also held editing positions at the San Francisco Examiner, The Dallas Morning News, and the Baltimore Sun.

Jeff Rowe, a reporter for The Orange County Register, has been a journalist for nearly 30 years. He has been a broadcast writer for The Associated Press, a staff writer for the Wall Street Journal and broadcast editor of the Orange County Register, coordinating coverage between the newspaper and its radio and television partners.

Rowe is a former Air Force officer and a graduate of the University of Hawaii. He teaches broadcast news writing at California State University, Fullerton, and he is the author of “Broadcast News Writing for Professionals.”

Jim Tucker, a professor in Fresno State’s Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, will moderate the discussion.

Relaxed parking will be available in Lots N, O and P on Barstow and Maple and Lot J on Woodrow between Shaw and Barstow. (See map and other event updates at www.FresnoStateNews.com).

For more information, contact the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at 278.2087.

(University Communications student-intern Megan Jacobsen contributed to this copy.)