The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism is creating visiting business journalism professorships for 2016 at the University of Georgia and the University of North Texas.
The Reynolds visiting professors program has created 12 business journalism professorships at 12 different schools. The program is administered by the Reynolds Center at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Each visiting professor teaches two courses related to business journalism and forges partnerships with nearby professional media outlets that will enhance students’ educational experience.
For the 2016 spring semester, Keith Herndon will serve as the Reynolds Visiting Professor at Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Karen Blumenthal will be the Reynolds Visiting Professor at UNT.
Herndon has taught as a visiting professor at Grady College and as an adjunct at Kennesaw State University, teaching entrepreneurial journalism, ethics, advanced reporting and news organization management.
His professional career began as a Pulliam Fellow, covering business for The Indianapolis News. He was a business reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution before becoming assistant business editor and deputy business editor. He was a vice president in Cox Enterprises’ Internet division before starting a media and technology consulting business.
Established in 1915, the UGA Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication offers undergraduate majors in advertising, entertainment and media studies, journalism and public relations. The college provides several graduate degrees and is home to the Peabody Awards, internationally recognized as one of the most prestigious prizes for excellence in electronic media.
“Business journalism is an expanding area of news coverage and our students will benefit from training that specifically teaches how to tell these complicated stories well,” said Charles Davis, dean of the Grady College. “The Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism is at the forefront of delivering programs to extend business journalism education, and we are delighted to be part of this initiative in 2016.”
Blumenthal is a veteran financial journalist, serving more than two decades with The Wall Street Journal where she covered retailing, oil and gas, housing, mergers and bankruptcies — and was Dallas bureau chief for eight years. At the Journal, she coordinated and edited one of the Sept. 11 stories that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for spot-news reporting. Blumenthal also has written three financial books for adults and five nonfiction books for young people.
The Mayborn School at UNT has the only professionally accredited master’s in journalism program in the state and is home to the nation’s premier literary nonfiction conference. Students consistently earn state, regional and national awards in journalism and can pursue studies in broadcast/digital news, digital/print news, photojournalism, advertising and public relations.
“We are delighted that UNT’s Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism has been selected to receive a Visiting Business Journalism Professor grant for the 2016 spring semester,” said Dorothy Bland, dean of the Mayborn School of Journalism and graduate director of the Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism. “North Texas offers a phenomenal lab for students to capture business stories on multiple platforms in the nation’s fifth-largest media market.”
Both schools will receive $40,000 from Reynolds to contribute to the professor’s salary, plus an additional $10,000 renewable grant to bring in visiting professionals to speak to students.
“The Reynolds visiting professor program has allowed universities across the country to introduce their students to the concepts needed to cover business topics,” said Peter Bhatia, director of the Reynolds Center. “It’s never been more important for journalists to understand how money affects every story. Our new Reynolds professors will be helping their schools lead in this important area.”
The Reynolds visiting professorships are modeled on successful programs at Washington and Lee University and the Cronkite School.
Ten other schools received Reynolds Visiting Business Journalism Professors over the course of the five-year program. They are:
2012
Will Sutton
Grambling State University
Department of Mass Communication
Karen Blumenthal
Texas Christian University
Bob Schieffer College of Communication
School of Journalism
Rob Wells
University of South Carolina
School of Journalism and Mass Communications
Rob Reuteman
Colorado State University
Department of Journalism and Technical Communication
2013
Dianne Finch
Elon University
School of Communications
Micheline Maynard
Central Michigan University
Department of Journalism
Noelle Knox
Louisiana State University
Manship School of Mass Communication
2014
Dick Weiss
University of Oklahoma
Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communications
Joe Winski
California State University, Fullerton
College of Communications
2015
Andrew Cassel
Pennsylvania State University
Department of Journalism
