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Highlights and Special Events
Opening Night Reception & Legal Defense Fund Auction
Location: Hyatt Regency Atlanta
Thursday, Sept. 4, 7-10 p.m.
$65 per ticket | Register
If meeting new people, enjoying great cuisine and helping a colleague defend First Amendment rights are activities that you enjoy, then help us kick off the 2008 SPJ Convention & National Journalism Conference in style at the Opening Night Reception. This is the premiere event at the convention where you can mix and mingle with fellow journalists and convention attendees while enjoying great food and drinks in an elegant setting.
While you’re mixing and mingling at the reception, don’t forget to pause for a moment to help out a fellow journalist by bidding in the Legal Defense Fund Auction. Each year, SPJ collects and distributes contributions for aiding journalists in defending the freedom of speech and press guaranteed by the First Amendment. The silent auction begins at 7 p.m. and closes shortly before the live auction, which begins at 8 p.m.
Mark of Excellence Awards Luncheon
Friday, Sept. 5, Noon-2 p.m.
$45 per ticket | Register
See what top student journalists around the country are accomplishing. SPJ will also salute outstanding faculty advisers during the luncheon. Our guest speaker, Hannah Allam, was the youngest Baghdad bureau chief when she was hired at the age of 25. Now, at the age of 30, serving as McClatchy’s bureau chief in Cairo, Allam covers the Middle East and Islamic world. She was named “Journalist of the Year 2004” by the National Association of Black Journalists, and the Overseas Press Club gave Allam, and two colleagues from the Baghdad bureau, its Hal Boyle Award for best newspaper reporting from abroad in 2005. She is a 2009 Nieman fellow at Harvard.
President’s Installation Banquet
Saturday, Sept. 6, 7:30-10 p.m., $65 per ticket
| Register
The Society’s most prestigious honors are presented to outstanding journalists and individual chapters are honored for journalistic excellence within their respective communities. Finally, as the current president’s term draws to a close, the Society’s president-elect takes the official oath to do his part to improve and protect journalism for the coming year.
Atlanta Newsroom Tours
The 2008 SPJ Convention & National Journalism Conference is packed full of exciting opportunities for journalists to improve their craft, including several behind-the-scenes tours of Atlanta’s leading broadcast studios! The following studios have been kind enough to open their doors to this year’s Convention attendees free of charge. Distance from the Hyatt Regency and recommended mode of transportation are listed under each studio’s description. Spots are limited, so make sure to sign up after you pick up your registration information at J-Expo! You don’t want to miss this unique opportunity!
WALR (AM), WCNN (AM) and WFOM (AM)
Owned By: Dickey Broadcasting Company
3535 Piedmont Road NE
Studio located about 8 miles from the Hyatt Regency
Recommended mode of transportation: Taxi/Car
Friday, Sept. 5; 10 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Space is limited. Pre-registration is required. Sign up when you pick up your registration packet at J-Expo!
If you’re a sports fanatic, the Dickey Broadcasting Company tour is the perfect outlet for you to get a first-hand look at the behind-the-scenes happenings of sports talk radio. WALR, WCNN and WFOM are three talk radio stations broadcast from the Buckhead area of Atlanta that commentate and report sports news at the local, regional and national levels.
WCNN, more commonly known as “680 The Fan,” carries the “CNN” call letter because it formerly broadcast the CNN news feed. WCNN continues to serve as a talk radio station but has changed its format to sports. The station carries the second largest AM signal in Georgia and is an affiliate of ESPN Radio.
WALR is closely associated with WCNN and is often referred to as “1340 The Fan 2.” The station also broadcasts in a sports format and runs programming from Fox Sports Radio.
WFOM, or “Supertalk 1230,” combines talk, news and sports into one package. It is the home of Sporting News Radio, The Dennis Miller Show, The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, The Phil Valentine Show, Notre Dame Football and several local shows.
Georgia Public Broadcasting
260 14th Street NW
Studio located 2 miles from the Hyatt Regency
Recommended mode of transportation: Provided GPB bus (complimentary)
Friday, Sept. 5; 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Space is limited. Pre-registration is required. Sign up when you pick up your registration packet at J-Expo!
If learning the daily operations of a publicly-supported media company is something that strikes your interest, the Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) tour will be the ideal educational opportunity for you. GPB serves the state of Georgia and significant portions of surrounding states with quality television and radio programming. It also serves as Georgia educators’ main source for high-quality media educational products and services.
GPB’s nine public television stations broadcast everything from national programs like the Antiques Roadshow to locally-produced shows like Georgia Travel and State of the Arts. Since 1984, GPB’s listener-supported public radio network has been Georgia’s source for great music and National Public Radio (NPR) news.
WSB-TV & Cox Radio Atlanta
1601 West Peachtree Street NE
Studio located 2.5 miles from the Hyatt Regency
Recommended mode of transportation: Taxi/Car/Walk
Thursday, Sept. 4; 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
SPJ is asking those Convention attendees interested in the WSB-TV & Cox Radio Atlanta tour to preregister. Please contact Chris Vachon with your name and the number attending in your group by Wednesday, Sept. 3 at 5 p.m.
The worlds of broadcast and print journalism share as many similarities as they do differences. The pace of production, news values and daily operations vary between the mediums, which can be surprising to veterans with a majority of experience in one facet of the journalism industry or the other. Whether you’re a print journalist who has never stepped foot in a broadcast studio or a broadcast veteran who has an interest in stepping foot inside a different studio, the WSB-TV tour will teach all journalists something about the medium and industry as a whole.
WSB-TV, one of 15 TV stations operated under Cox Television, delivers up-to-the minute news about Atlanta and the surrounding area through its fully functioning broadcast studio located in the heart of downtown. As the local ABC affiliate, WSB-TV reports national news as well as local and regional news. It’s also home to several nationally syndicated shows, including “Live! With Regis and Kelly” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
Cox Radio Atlanta consists of five stations that reach almost 50% of Atlanta’s population and caters to an audience that mirrors the diversity of the city’s demographic. Cox Radio Atlanta’s stations include KISS 104.1 (WALR-FM), 955 The Beat ((WBTS-FM), News-Talk 750 WSB (WSB-AM), B98.5FM (WSB-FM) and 971 The River (WSRV-FM). These stations play everything from contemporary tunes to the classics, making Cox Radio Atlanta’s collection of stations something every listener can enjoy.
Journalism Expo
Thursday, Sept. 4 - Saturday, Sept. 6
This trade show features everything from vendors with unique stories to recruiters who are looking for outstanding journalists to join their newsrooms. Within the Journalism Expo, convention-attendees also can register for workshops, purchase books at the Bookmart or get a connection to the outside world with an on-site Internet Café. The Expo opens Thursday at noon and continues through Saturday afternoon. Get a taste of who will be on the floor at this year's Journalism Expo.
Career Development Center
Friday, Sept. 5 and Saturday, Sept. 6, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Need help starting your journalism career? Let the experts staffing the Career Development Center review your résumé, clips and tapes and provide you with helpful suggestions about how to improve them.
Query Clinic
Friday, Sept. 5 and Saturday, Sept. 6, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Do you suspect your queries end up in the slush pile? Got a great idea, but aren’t sure how to pitch it? Here’s an opportunity to craft a great pitch with an expert fellow freelancer or editor. Sign up to meet with a query mentor at one of our query clinics. To schedule a time at the clinic, please email Sally Lehrman.
Professional Development Programs
Thursday, Sept. 4 - Saturday, Sept. 6
There's something for everyone in this year's schedule. Check out a list of the many workshops we're offering.
Half-Day Training Workshops
Take advantage of these special opportunities for in-depth, hands-on training. Space is limited, and advance registration is required.
Atlanta Attractions
Wondering what you can do after the Convention events are done for the day? The city of Atlanta provides a variety of options, including the CNN Headquarters, Atlanta Botanical Garden, the Georgia Aquarium and much more! Check out all the city has to offer here.
Ethics Hold 'em
Friday, Sept. 5, 6 p.m. | Executive Conference Room 219
Learn journalism ethics by gambling. Play Ethics Hold 'em and enjoy free food, valuable prizes and professional dealers and poker tables. First come, first seated. Confused? Visit this link for more information.
SPJ Chapter Leader Training and Discussion
Saturday, Sept. 6. 12:30 p.m. | Lenox Room, Hyatt Atlanta Conference Center Level
Looking for new ideas for your chapter? Want to find out what other chapters are up to when it comes to building and maintaining success? How about getting fund-raising ideas? This is the perfect session for every chapter leader. In fact, it’s recommended that every chapter (pro and campus) try to have at least one representative attend this meeting. Chapter faculty advisers are also encouraged to attend.
Speakers and guests aplenty
Many special guests are scheduled to speak at this year's convention, including:
Brett Blackledge, reporter, Associated Press and former general assignment and special projects reporter, Birmingham (Ala.) News
Brett Blackledge received the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Journalism and the Associated Press Managing Editors public service award for his ongoing series on corruption and cronyism in Alabama's two-year colleges.
Brett, 44, is a general assignment and special projects reporter with The Birmingham News. He moved to Alabama in 1993, joining The Mobile Register as a local government reporter. He also covered education and state government. He has worked at The Birmingham News since 1998.
Brett is a native of Baton Rouge, La. He earned a journalism degree from Louisiana State University in 1986. He began his career with the Associated Press in New Orleans, and later worked for AP in Jackson, Miss., and Tulsa, Okla.
He worked for The Journal Newspapers in suburban Washington, D.C., covering crime, local government and the Maryland and Virginia legislatures. There he also wrote about national education issues for Education Daily, covering the White House, U.S. Congress and U.S. Department of Education. He left Washington for Alabama in 1993.
Martin Fletcher, correspondent, NBC News
Martin Fletcher, NBC News' Tel Aviv bureau chief and correspondent, has covered every event of consequence in the unpredictable Middle East region for thirty-five years. He began his current Tel Aviv assignment in 1982 and took on the additional role of bureau chief in November 1990. He joined NBC News as a cameraman in August 1977, and has also been based in Johannesburg, Paris and Frankfurt.
From his base in Tel Aviv, Fletcher has covered a full spectrum of breaking news developments throughout the Middle East and around the world. In 2003 he won the prestigious Alfred I. du Pont award for his reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which also won him his fourth Emmy and the Overseas Press Club award. He has also reported on the war on terror in Afghanistan, the conflict in Kosovo and, he reported from Berlin when the walls came down and from China in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre. When NATO and American troops were hunting for General Aidid, the Somali warlord responsible for killing 18 American soldiers in Somalia, Fletcher was the only person to find and interview him for NBC Nightly News. He also became the first correspondent to enter Cambodia with the Khmer Rouge guerrillas.
Fletcher has received numerous awards. He received his first Emmy in 1998 for his reporting on the Palestinian Intifada, the second in 1994 for his coverage of Rwanda and the third in 1999 for his Kosovo coverage, his fourth for the second Palestinian Intifada and his fifth for Israel’s war with Hizbullah in 2006. He won the Citation for Excellence from the Overseas Press Club of America in 1994 for his coverage in Bosnia, again in 1988 for his coverage of the first Palestinian uprising and again in 2001 for the second uprising. He was also named Cameraman of the Year by the British Royal Society of Television for his film story about an automobile convoy caught in a minefield, which resulted in the death of the crew's soundman.
Fletcher is the author of “Breaking News,” published in March 2008, and is currently working on his next book, about Israel, whose working title is “The Holy Coast,” with a publication date of 2010.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault, foreign correspondent, NPR
Charlayne Hunter-Gault recently left her post as CNN's Johannesburg bureau chief and correspondent, which she had held since 1999, to pursue independent projects. Before joining CNN, she worked from Johannesburg as the chief correspondent in Africa for NPR from 1997 to 1999.
Hunter-Gault was the chief national correspondent for The Newshour with Jim Lehrer on PBS from 1983 to 1997. She had joined the MacNeil/Lehrer Report in 1978 as a correspondent. In 1989, she was also the correspondent for MacNeil/Lehrer Productions' five-part series, "Learning in America." During her tenure at The NewsHour, she won two Emmys and a Peabody for excellence in broadcast journalism for her work on the series "Apartheid's People." She has also received the 1986 Journalist of the Year Award from the National Association of Black Journalists.
After winning a Russell Sage Fellowship to Washington University, Hunter-Gault edited for Trans-Action Magazine. In 1963 she became a reporter at The New Yorker, where she wrote for the "Talk of the Town" section.She went on to work as an investigative reporter and anchorwoman on the local evening news for WRC-TV from 1967 to 1968. She then joined the New York Times as a metropolitan reporter specializing in coverage of the urban African-American community. She won several awards during her ten years there, including the National Urban Coalition Award for Distinguished Urban Reporting and The New York Times ' Publisher's Award. She has also been published in The New York Times Magazine, Saturday Review, The New York Times Book Review, Essence, and Vogue.
Tom Hallman, Jr., reporter, The Oregonian
Tom Hallman Jr., is considered one of the nation's premier narrative writers. During his career, he has won every major feature-writing award, some for stories that took months to report, others less than a couple of hours. The stories range from the drama of life and death in a neo-natal unit, to the quiet pride of a man graduating from college.
A common thread in all of Hallman's stories is the exploration of the character's heart and soul. Hallman believes that every reporter — no matter how many years they have been in this business — can learn how to spot true stories and report and write them in ways that resonate with readers. The ability to write has less to do with pure talent, and more with the understanding of craft, vision and emotion.
Tom's first journalism job was in New York City as copy editor for Hearst Magazines Special Publications. He returned to Oregon as a reporter at The Hermiston Herald, a small weekly in Hermiston, Ore, before landing a job at the Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash. In 1980, he moved to The Oregonian where he covered crime for 10 years. He is now a reporter with the Portland team.
Tom is a frequent contributor to Readers Digest, and his stories have appeared in Esquire, Best Life and Star magazine. One of his stories was made into a movie. His book, "Sam: The Boy Behind the Mask, was published in 2002." He writes a column on writing for Quill Magazine. Hallman has been a speaker at National Writer's Workshops and at papers across the United States. He has taught at USC, Notre Dame and Brown University.
Hank Klibanoff, former managing editor, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hank Klibanoff is co-author, with Gene Roberts, of "The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle and the Awakening of A Nation."
Their book won the Pulitzer Prize in history in 2007.
Klibanoff, former managing editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, was born and raised in Florence, Alabama. He graduated with a bachelor's in English from Washington University in St. Louis and received his Master's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
He was a reporter for six years in Mississippi for The Daily Herald, South Mississippi Sun (now the Sun-Herald) and the Greenville Delta Democrat Times. After a year backpacking in Europe and the Middle East, he joined The Boston Globe for three years.
He then moved to The Philadelphia Inquirer where, over the next 20 years, he worked as a city reporter and as a national reporter based out of Chicago before serving in a variety of editing positions, including business editor, Sunday editor and deputy managing editor.
Hank and his wife, Laurie A. Leonard, have three daughters and live in Atlanta.
"The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle and the Awakening of A Nation" also won the Goldsmith Award, the American Journalism Historians Book Award, and the Frank Luther Mott Award, and was a finalist for the Robert F. Kennedy Award and the PEN/Galbraith Award.
"The Race Beat" is published by Alfred A. Knopf in hardback, by Vintage Books in paperback, and is available on audiobook by Brilliance Audio.
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2008 SPJ Convention & Journalism Conference
September 4-7, 2008
Atlanta
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