Society of Professional Journalists | 2010 SPJ Convention & National Journalism Conference

2010 SPJ Convention & National Journalism Conference
October 3-5, 2010
Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, Las Vegas

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Professional Development Programs

Half-Day Workshops
In addition to regular convention programming, these half day programs are available:

— The Entire Conversation: Using Social Media Tools to Reach Content-hungry Audiences
— Show Me the Money: How Successful Freelancers Win Lucrative Assignments and Profit
— Video for the Web
— The Art of Storytelling: Getting to the Heart of the Story
— From Officials’ Grubbies to the Web: How to Acquire Government Data and Post it Online for the Public
— Creating Multi-platform Stories

For more information about each program, click here. Limited space available. Advance registration will be available shortly, and those who register for the convention now will be able to register separately for a half-day workshop.

There's something for everyone in this year's schedule. Check out an early list of the workshops we're offering in Las Vegas, and check back frequently as many more programs are announced and more details become available!

What Does the Future Have in Store?

Description: See what the future of journalism will look like based on some of the more promising ventures currently finding success. It’s an explosion of journalism — just in different forms. Just because a newspaper goes away doesn’t mean there is a lack of content. People are using social media, data and mobile more and more for journalism

Speaking: Mark Briggs, co-founder and CEO, Serra Media, director of digital media, King 5 TV Seattle and author, “Journalism Next” and “Journalism 2.0”

Using Internet and Social Media Tools to Diversify your Sources and Audience

Description: As media outlets across the country have been forced to scale back on staff, coverage of ethnic and other minority communities has also been cut. However, exciting new trends in online media have made it easier to explore and contact new diverse sources and audiences. In this session we’ll look at the use of tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Ning, among others.

Speaking: Sherbeam Wright, sustainability communications and social media consultant; Pueng Vongs, online producer/editor, MercuryNews.com, ContraCostaTimes.com and InsideBayArea.com

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Pueng Vongs, online producer/editor, MercuryNews.com, ContraCostaTimes.com and InsideBayArea.com
Ms. Pueng Vongs has two decades of experience in journalism. She is a online producer/editor for Bay Area News Group (MercuryNews.com, InsideBayArea/OaklandTribune.com and ContraCostaTimes.com), where she edits content for the web and leverages social media, multimedia, mapping and mobile tools. She has also worked in financial news at CBS.Marketwatch.com and Money magazine. Vongs’ stories have run in the Chicago Sun-Times, San Francisco Chronicle and NPR among other outlets.

She serves as the diversity chair for SPJ and has spent more than a decade reporting on minority communities, mainly at Pacific News Service/New America Media, the largest association of U.S. ethnic media.

Sherbeam Wright, sustainability communications and social media consultant
Sherbeam Wright has more than 15 years of experience in communications, community outreach and social media. She is currently a sustainability communications and social media consultant. She has worked with authors, journalists and corporations. Photo is attached.

The Art of Access: Getting Public Records When Stretched for Time

Description: Improve your reporting and find great stories by learning inside tips and psychological strategies for acquiring public records, even while stretched for time with daily stories, posting to the Web four times a day, and covering three extra beats. Two of the nation's leading access experts will provide dozens of document-driven story ideas and practical tips to improve your game, whether just starting out or a seasoned pro. Walk away with great story ideas, news-you-can-use records tips, and a fire to raise your reporting to the next level. In these tough times, don't retrench. Charge!

Speaking: Charles Davis, executive director, National Freedom of Information Coalition; David Cuillier, chairman, SPJ’s National FOI Committee

The Best Story of our Lives

Description: By October, we will be two months away from seeing the first numbers from one of the most historic censuses in U.S. history. The major theme of this census: The historic racial changes in 21st century America. The census story will continue through May 2011 and beyond. Journalists would be wise to create a two-part coverage plan: 1) What’s at stake? The winners and losers. December 2010 - May 2011. 2) The real census story. The kids. April 2011 to the future. The 2010 census is a big deal because it will make clear that the U.S. will become a majority minority nation in our lifetime. In December 2009, the Census Bureau put that timeframe at 2050. But, 47 percent of kids under 5 in this country now are minorities. The New York Times reported in March 2009 that the latest sign of the nation’s shifting racial and ethnic composition — births to Asian, black and Hispanic women in the United States — are on the verge of surpassing births to non-Hispanic whites.

Speaking: Bobbi Bowman, editor, The McLean Ear, an online community newspaper serving McLean, VA.

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Bobbi Bowman, editor, The McLean Ear, an online community newspaper serving McLean, VA.
Bobbi began her career at The Washington Post as a suburban reporter and became an assistant city editor. She has also worked at the Detroit Free Press, USA TODAY and as the managing editor of the Observer-Dispatch, in Utica, N.Y.

Bobbi received the prestigious Ida B. Wells Award in 2009 and Asian American Journalists Association Leadership in Diversity Award in 2007.

She writes on covering the New America for ASNE and the Maynard Institute . She is a student of World War II, the Eighth Air Force and B-17s.

On June 6, 2009, she stood on Omaha Beach with the heroes for the 65th anniversary of D-Day.

Crap! My Paper Closed!

Description: I had played by the rules. Started as a reporter. Worked my way up the beat system. Then my newsroom got the message: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer was closing. So began my baptism by fire into the world of news entrepreneurship. Over the next year, I and determined group of journalists built a startup investigative news organization, InvestigateWest, from the ground up. Always focused on the day’s news deadlines and headlines, I began to learn how to network and build a business. I became immersed in social media, and learned to use Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to promote my business. I learned what an ad impression was. I wrote a business plan. I put together a nationally recognized board of directors, launched a successful fund drive, and wrote successful grant applications. I made decisions about liability insurance and payroll. I remembered to rethink my goals, and change it up if it wasn’t working. I recruited pro-bono legal representation. I sold our first story — to MSNBC.com, and built a network of media partners. Learn how one group of journalists created their own jobs, and are building a new future for investigative, in-depth journalism.

Speaking: Rita Hibbard, executive editor & director, InvestigateWest

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Rita Hibbard, executive editor & director, InvestigateWest
As executive director and editor of InvestigateWest, Rita Hibbard is working to create a new collaborative model for investigative reporting. Her team creates stories that are produced across platforms, for distribution on its Web site and to online, print and broadcast media. Before launching InvestigateWest, she was assistant managing editor for news and editor of the investigative team at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

News Gear to Get the Job Done

Description: Kerry Northrup brings his NewsGear demonstration to attendees as he evaluates newsgathering equipment and shares his recommendations for the best and most practical gear to help journalists do their jobs efficiently and effectively.

Speaking: Kerry Northrup, Cal Turner Professor in Multimedia Journalism, Western Kentucky University and former director of publications, World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers

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Kerry Northrup, Cal Turner Professor in Multimedia Journalism, Western Kentucky University and former director of publications, World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers
Kerry Northrup, the Cal Turner Professor in Multimedia Journalism at Western Kentucky University, has been described as an "editorial architect" who designs tech-savvy newshandling operations from the journalism up. Northrup has been a professional journalist, award-winning editor and international news executive. He was the founder and developer of the Newsplex, a $2.5 million prototype multi-platform newsroom for demonstration, training and research in convergent print, online, video and mobile newshandling. Northrup also produced the acclaimed newsroom-of-the-future concept video “Tomorrow's News." Over the course of 14 years with what is now the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), Northrup evaluated and guided the reorganization of more than 34 newsrooms in 22 countries and directed WAN-IFRA Magazine, the international journal of news publishing strategy and technology. He has a media career spanning more than 30 years that includes stints at as Gannett and The St. Petersburg Times. Northrup also is a former U.S. Navy surface warfare officer and a one-time radio broadcaster.

Secrets to Personal Branding

Description: Learn how to build your own brand by building your own Web site, video, blog and podcast. Why is personal branding so important in today's fast-changing media landscape? Journalists at all levels will get some easy-to-follow tips on creating and maintaining blogs, building Web sites, adding video, podcasts and photos to help build your brand — and a following. Learn how and why social networking can help you become your "own boss" in today's fast-changing media landscape.

Speaking: Yumi Wilson, journalism professor, blogger and former content producer, Yahoo; Staci Baird, blogger, content producer, videographer and Web guru; Marlo McKenzie, documentary maker; Dan Schawbel, recognized as a "personal branding guru" by The New York Times

The Pulitzer Public Service Challenge

Description: Learn from reporters and editors involved with recent Pulitzer Prize-winning work in the Public Service category, as they explain what set their projects apart.

Moderating: Roy Harris, veteran Wall Street Journal journalist and author of “Pulitzer's Gold: Behind the Prize for Public Service Journalism”

Speaking: Alexandra Berzon, reporter, Los Angeles bureau, Wall Street Journal; former reporter, Las Vegas Sun — led the paper on its 2009 Pulitzer-winning project; Mark Maremont, senior editor, Wall Street Journal, who led the team that won the Pulitzer in 2007 that uncovered the improper backdating of corporate stock-options

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Alexandra Berzon, reporter, Los Angeles bureau, Wall Street Journal
Alexandra Berzon is a reporter in the Los Angeles bureau of the Wall Street Journal. Her investigations for the Las Vegas Sun into a string of construction deaths on Las Vegas Strip casino projects won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for the Sun, and won the Scripps Howard Award for Public Service Reporting, and several regional awards. She was also part of a group that won the George Polk award for a series on early signs of global warming broadcast on NPR's Living on Earth. She has also worked for the San Antonio Express-News, Anchorage Daily News and Red Herring Magazine. Born and raised in Berkeley, California, she is a graduate of Vassar College and U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Mark Maremont, senior editor, Wall Street Journal, who led the team that won the Pulitzer in 2007 that uncovered the improper backdating of corporate stock-options
Mark Maremont is a senior editor at The Wall Street Journal, based in Boston. Maremont, who joined the paper in May 1997, led a team of Journal reporters in uncovering improper backdating of corporate stock-option awards. The stories resulted in numerous corporate earnings restatements, firings of executives, and some convictions. In 2007, the stories also led to the Journal receiving its first-ever Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Maremont, who has a bachelor's degree from Brown University and a master's degree from Columbia University, began his journalism career as a New York-based telecommunications editor at BusinessWeek.

Site Roulette: 60 Sites in 60 Minutes

Description: A fresh look at the technology landscape and the tools that are being used by journalists all over the world. Attendees will immediately have new tools to fire up on their laptops.

Speaking: Ron Sylvester, reporter, Wichita Eagle; Jeff Cutler, freelance journalist, Boston

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Jeff Cutler, freelance journalist, Boston
In 1992, Jeff Cutler was delivering words to MacConnection, HomeQuarters Warehouse, the Boston Herald and the Mariner Newspaper chain. From there he expanded into projects for Fidelity Investments, WearGuard, Talbots and a host of other respected businesses.

These days, in addition to his new-media presence, Jeff's a credentialed reporter covering events like major golf tournaments and sporting events, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and film festivals and lifestyle events all over the world.

His current project load includes articles and features for Gatehouse Media, a slew of social-media projects including blogs and podcasts, columns and editorials for a variety of clients, as well as the completion of marketing and branding initiatives for recognized names like Brookstone, TJX and UNO Restaurant Group.

Ron Sylvester, reporter, Wichita Eagle
Ron Sylvester is the second generation from his family to belong to SPJ. His father a broadcast pioneer from Missouri, joined SPJ when it was still the Sigma Delta Chi fraternity in 1950. After visiting his father on the job and hearing the clacking of teletype machines, Sylvester ended up working for his hometown newspaper, the Springfield News-Leader, for 24 years. His first assignment was "women's athletics," which he was the first reporter at the paper to cover the beat.

After being asked to leave college because he devoted more time to the paper than to classes, Sylvester continued in the industry, covering every beat in the newsroom, including arts and entertainment to public health, medicine, science and technology. He even found time to write a book on the development of Branson as an entertainment tourist destination. Today, Sylvester covers legal affairs for at the Wichita Eagle and works as a stringer for Court TV. He resides with his wife and five children.

Social Media: The Safe Way

Description: Do you give your latest blog entry or tweet a second thought before unloading your uninhibited thoughts onto the world? Perhaps you should. The risks of slander, libel, and other media law issues for journalists abound on the Web, and some easier to stumble onto than others. Where do you draw the line online and how do you protect yourself?

Moderating: Michael Farrell, University of Kentucky's First Amendment Center

Speaking: Dick Goehler, Frost, Brown, Todd LLC, Cincinnati; Steve Sebelius, editor, Las Vegas CityLife

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Michael Farrell, University of Kentucky's First Amendment Center
Mike Farrell is the director of the Scripps Howard First Amendment Center and an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky. He worked as a reporter and editor at The Kentucky Post for 20 years.

Dick Goehler, Frost, Brown, Todd LLC, Cincinnati
Dick Goehler is a partner in the Intellectual Property practice group of the Cincinnati office of Frost Brown Todd LLC and a past member of the firm's Executive Committee. His practice is concentrated in the areas of media law, including digital, interactive and social media, advertising law, copyright and trademark, and complex intellectual property and business litigation. He represents media clients in all aspects of First Amendment and newsroom-related matters, including prepublication/prebroadcast review, defense of defamation and invasion of privacy claims, and in access to public records and meetings disputes. He handles a wide variety of constantly evolving internet, digital and interactive media issues. He also handles trademark and copyright matters and regularly counsels and advises clients on advertising review, clearance issues, and sweepstakes and promotions.

Mr. Goehler is the Immediate Past Chair of the Governing Board of the American Bar Association's Forum on Communications Law. He is a charter member of the Defense Counsel Section of the Libel Defense Resource Center (LDRC, aka Media Law Resource Center - MLRC), and formerly the co-chair of its Advertising and Commercial Speech Committee. He has co-authored the chapter on Ohio Libel and Privacy Law for the annual LDRC/MLRC 50-State Survey since 1982. He also has given numerous presentations at local, statewide and national media law conferences and seminars, including regular newsroom seminars for his firm's print and broadcast clients.

He is a former co-chair of the American Bar Association's First Amendment & Media Litigation Committee and co-editor of that committee's newsletter. He is also an active member of various professional committees, including the Board of Directors of the Student Press Law Center and the Ohio State Bar Association's (OSBA) Media Law Committee. Mr. Goehler received his A.B., magna cum laude, from Miami University and his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame Law School.

Steve Sebelius, editor, Las Vegas CityLife
Steve Sebelius was born and raised in Huntington Beach, Calif. He graduated from Biola University in 1989, and went to work for his hometown newspaper, the weekly Huntington Beach Independent.

Shortly thereafter, he was hired by the Pomona Progress Bulletin to cover the then-newly incorporated city of Diamond Bar, as well as the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the nation’s largest local government. It was at the Progress-Bulletin that he also began covering politics, a lifetime avocation. (The Progress-Bulletin later merged with its sister paper, the Ontario Daily Report to form the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. Sebelius was named bureau chief of the Pomona bureau following that merger.)

In 1990, he was hired by the Sacramento Union, then the oldest continually published daily newspaper west of the Mississippi River. He covered education, and later City Hall and state and federal courts. It was at the Union that he wrote a series of investigative stories on Bill Honig, then the state’s superintendent of public instruction. Honig was later indicted and removed from office after being found guilty of felony conflict of interest charges. (The Union ceased publishing in 1994.)

In 1993, he was hired by the Las Vegas Sun to cover police, and later City Hall, where he wrote in-depth reports about a police bond issue, the D.A.R.E. program and downtown redevelopment efforts. He left Las Vegas in 1997 to work for the Gannet Co.-owned San Bernardino Sun, but returned to Las Vegas in 1998 as a writer for the alternative weekly newspaper CityLife.

In late 1999, he was hired by the Review-Journal to be that newspaper’s political columnist, and also to write a twice-daily e-mail newsletter called the EARLY LINE. In that job, he wrote more than 800 columns and covered three elections and the contentious 2003 session of the Nevada state Legislature.

In 2005, after Review-Journal parent Stephens Media LLC purchased CityLife, Sebelius was named editor. He writes the award-winning weekly column “Coffee & Outrage,” and a daily blog about Nevada politics at www.SlashPolitics.com. Under his tenure, CityLife has twice been recognized for general excellence and once for community service by the Nevada Press Association, and in 2008, the newspaper was accepted for membership in the prestigious Association of Alternative Newsweeklies.

Sebelius was the host of the television show Political Insiders, from 2006 to 2007, on KTNV Channel 13, Las Vegas’s ABC affiliate. He appears as a regular guest on VegasPBS’s Nevada Week in Review, and also appears frequently on Nevada Public Radio’s State of Nevada interview program. In January 2010, he was added to the prestigious I-Team of reporters at KLAS Channel 8, Las Vegas’s CBS affiliate. He appears on the 6 p.m. newscast twice weekly to discuss Nevada politics and cover special events, including the State of the Union, primary and general elections and the governor’s State of the State address.

Sebelius is married and lives in Henderson, Nev. with his wife, Eryn.

Networked Journalism

Description: Can daily newspapers and televisions collaborate with other media makers in their communities? How should a daily newspaper deal with a "blogvertorial?" Which partners best adhere to core journalism values? This session will examine lessons learned from five Networked Journalism pilot projects funded by J-Lab. These projects partnered mainstream news organizations with five hyperlocal sites in their communities to share content and eventually revenue streams.

Moderating: Jan Schaffer, executive director, J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism Panelists’ involvement is supported by a grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.

Speaking: Alicia Roberts, project coordinator, Charlotte’s Hyperlocal Group; Anthony Gimino, project coordinator, TucsonCitizen.com; Bob Payne, director of communities, SeattleTimes.com

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Anthony Gimino, project coordinator, TucsonCitizen.com
Anthony Gimino has been a sports journalist for 20 years, as a writer and editor for newspapers, magazines and the internet. He worked at the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson from 1990 to 1998, primarily as the University of Arizona football beat reporter, before moving to Tacoma, Wash., to join CBSSportsLine.com as its College Football Editor.

He returned to Tucson in 2002, launching a freelance career before joining the Tucson Citizen newspaper in December 2004 and becoming sports columnist two years later, a position he held until the paper's closure in May 2009, becoming the web-only TucsonCitizen.com.

Gimino is the Senior Editor of Lindy's College Football Annuals and oversees the TucsonCitizen.com Sports Network, which operates under a grant from J-Lab in its study of networked journalism.

Bob Payne, director of communities, SeattleTimes.com
Bob Payne has been director of communities at seattletimes.com since summer of 2008. His primary task has been to determine and execute the Times’ strategy regarding neighborhood- and topic-specific content and the online communities of interest that thrive in those niche areas.

While some media companies have chosen to launch their own sites as part of their hyperlocal strategy, the Times has opted instead to build relationships with local content producers with the goal of developing mutually supportive relationships that spotlight the strengths of the respective sites.

Payne also manages all of the staff blogs on seattletimes.com, as well as the forums, and the tool that allows readers to comment on stories.

From 1998 until 2008, Payne managed the Sports channel of seattletimes.com, leading the effort to build a very successful high school sports site built upon a database of results. He also worked on several database-driven news projects, such as the Eppy Award-winning Guide to Schools.

Before moving to online, Mr. Payne was an assistant sports editor and copy editor at the Herald in Everett, Wash. He’s got a B.A. in Journalism from The Ohio State University.

Alicia Roberts, project coordinator, Charlotte’s Hyperlocal Group
Alicia Roberts is director of partner relations for the Charlotte Observer’s hyper-local news project, the Charlotte News Network. She works with five founding publishers who produce eight community news sites in the region. She has worked as metro editor and features editor at The State, in Columbia, S.C., and as managing editor for several health care business publications in Washington, D.C. She started her newspaper career at the Dayton Daily News.

A Federal Shield Law

Description: The proposed federal shield law is closer to being law than ever before, but it remains undecided. Depending on the outcome, this panel will discuss our great success, our lamentable defeat or the paralysis of the Senate.

Speaking: Kevin Z. Smith, president, Society of Professional Journalists; Steve Taylor, chairman, SPJ’s Government Relations Committee; RonNell Andersen Jones, Associate Professor of Law, Brigham Young University

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Kevin Z. Smith, president, Society of Professional Journalists
Kevin Z. Smith, who became SPJ's president in August 2009, is an assistant professor of journalism at Fairmont State University. He is a career journalist having worked in newsrooms as a reporter, photographer and editor for more than 20 years.

He earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from West Virginia University and a master's degree in mass communications from Miami University (Ohio).

He served as an adjunct instructor at Fairmont State and West Virginia University before being named assistant professor of journalism and director of student publications at FSU in 2003. He also was a visiting instructor of journalism at Miami University from 1995-2000.

Smith has worked at various daily papers in West Virginia including publications in Fairmont where he was managing editor, Morgantown as city editor, Parkersburgas a business writer and Grafton as sports editor. He also worked as a reporter for Bloomberg Financial News in Washington, D.C.

Smith was inducted into SPJ as a West Virginia University student in 1978. He joined the ethics committee in 1988 and served as chair of the committee from 1994-96, the two years when the ethics code was rewritten. He is a contributor to two of the SPJ ethics books, "Doing Ethics in Journalism" and he has written for trade publications and scholarly journals on ethical issues. He also served as the society's Sunshine Chair, an advocate for open meetings and records laws in West Virginia, for five years. He served on the national board in 1997 as a campus adviser-at-large. He also has worked on the convention's resolution and nominations committees.

Smith is a columnist for the Times West Virginian in Fairmont, is a freelance writer for northern West Virginia's Corridor magazine and works as an Associated Press political elections reporter. He is a native of Fairmont with two sons, Ben and Nick.

Steve Taylor, chairman, SPJ’s Government Relations Committee
Steve Taylor, adjunct professor of communication at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., is a freelance writer, video producer and media relations consultant based in Arlington, Va. For twelve years Taylor was a correspondent for ABC News. He covered the White House as a correspondent for Unistar Radio Network and Satellite News Channel and also did White House reporting for National Journal’s CongressDaily and the PBS NewsHour. Taylor also has reported for CNN, CBS Radio and Mutual/NBC Radio. He has covered Congress, the Supreme Court, federal agencies and the last nine presidential campaigns. He was the first broadcast reporter to win the Merriman Smith Award for Presidential News Coverage from the White House Correspondents Association. For his reporting from New York on 9/11, he shared ABC’s Peabody and DuPont-Columbia Awards.

Taylor was a contributing writer to two books published in 2009: Latinos And The Nation’s Future, edited by former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry G. Cisneros, and Weathering Storms: Human Resources In Difficult Times, published by the Society for Human Resource Management. For five years he was host of Technogenesis, a Comcast television program about innovations in science and engineering. Taylor has a degree in economics from the University of Virginia.

RonNell Andersen Jones, Associate Professor of Law, Brigham Young University
A former newspaper reporter and editor, RonNell Andersen Jones researches and writes on legal issues affecting the press and on the intersection between media and the courts. She is a regular presenter at media law conferences and served as the director of the 2007 Media Subpoena Study, a nationwide study of the frequency and impact of subpoenas served upon newspapers and television newsrooms. Her work on the project was featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post and USA Today, as well as on MSNBC, Fox News and National Public Radio.

Jones teaches courses on Constitutional Law, First Amendment, Media Law, Statutory Interpretation, and the Supreme Court. She team-teaches with Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor an annual course about the United States Supreme Court at the University of Arizona, where Jones was a Distinguished Faculty Fellow from 2004 to 2008.

Before entering legal academia, Jones clerked for Judge William A. Fletcher of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the United States Supreme Court and worked in the appellate division of the law firm of Jones Day, where her practice focused on litigation before the United States Supreme Court. She has served as a lecturer on media law at The Ohio State University and Ohio Wesleyan University. Before coming to BYU, Jones was the Distinguished Faculty Fellow at the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law.

Journalists on the Line: Dangers of the Borderlands Beat

Description: Taking an overall look at the increasing dangers and difficulties journalists face working around the world is important. We will take an in-depth look at the situation of journalists attempting to cover the drug war being fought on the U.S. - Mexico border, particularly Mexican journalists in the borderlands; a number of whom have been killed by drug traffickers for simply doing their jobs.

Moderating: Ronnie Lovler and Ricardo Sandoval, co-chairwoman and co-chairman, SPJ’s International Journalism Committee

Speaking: Joel Simon, executive director, Committee to Protect Journalists; Bruce Brugmann, chairman, North American membership committee, Inter American Press Association; Alfredo Corchado, Mexico bureau chief, Dallas Morning News; Susan Lynne Walker, vice president, Institute of the Americas

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Ronnie Lovler, co-chairwoman, SPJ’s International Journalism Committee
Ronnie Lovler is international editor for Newswire21, a new wire service model that will be a journalist-guided network to generate news from the community-up. She also writes for Newsdesk.org, a nonprofit news bureau that publishes a weekly news roundup. Ronnie is chair of the International Journalism Committee of the Society of Professional Journalists and a member of the executive board of the Northern California chapter of SPJ. Most recently, Ronnie was associate director of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University. Previously, she was a correspondent for CNN in Latin America and a writer and producer for CNN International. She also reported for CBS News, the Associated Press, Pacifica Radio and The San Juan Star in Puerto Rico where she got her start in journalism.

Ricardo Sandoval, co-chairman, SPJ’s International Journalism Committee
Ricardo Sandoval Palos is Project Manager for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Public Integrity. Previously he was assistant city editor and weekend metro editor at The Sacramento Bee. As a foreign correspondent in Latin America from 1997 to 2005, Ricardo covered crime, migration and insurgent movements — work that earned him first-place awards from the Overseas Press Club and the Inter-American Press Association. While at the San Jose Mercury News, Ricardo was part of a team that won a Gerald R. Loeb prize for business journalism. In 1997 he also co-wrote the biography “The Fight in the Fields; Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement,” published by Harcourt.

Bruce Brugmann, chairman, North American membership committee, Inter American Press Association
Bruce B. Brugmann is the co-founder, editor, and publisher of the San Francisco Bay Guardian. He is a founder and former president of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, the trade association for alternative papers. He is a founder, former president, and current director of the California First Amendment Coalition.

He is a former president of the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and has won lifetime achievement awards from the local and national SPJ chapters. He is known as the Godfather of the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance, the first and best local open government ordinance in the nation. He is a member of the executive comimittee of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA.).

Alfredo Corchado, Mexico bureau chief, Dallas Morning News
Alfredo Corchado is Mexico Bureau Chief for The Dallas Morning News. In 2008-2009, Alfredo completed a year at Harvard, as a Neiman Fellow. In 2008, he was awarded the prestigious Maria Moors Cabot award, honoring his years of groundbreaking coverage of Latin America and the U.S. — Mexico border. Corchado is a native of Durango, Mexico. Since 1984 he has written about life and death along the border — and the region’s social and cultural vibrancy — for the Wall Street Journal, the El Paso Herald Post and The Morning News.

Joel Simon, executive director, Committee to Protect Journalists
Joel Simon is one of the world’s recognized experts on press freedom. Since being appointed executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists in 2006, he has written widely on media issues and has led numerous international missions on behalf of journalists worldwide.

Under Simon’s guidance, CPJ launched the Global Campaign Against Impunity and established the Journalists Assistance program, which provides aid to journalists in distress. Simon has also led efforts to protect press freedom on the Internet as journalists increasingly work online.

Under his leadership, CPJ has been honored with the prestigious Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights and a News & Documentary Emmy for its work in defense of press freedom.

Simon is a contributor to Slate and the Columbia Journalism Review, and his articles have appeared in The New York Review of Books, World Policy Journal, and numerous other publications. He appears regularly in the media as a commentator on press freedom issues, including in The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, and CNN.

Simon joined CPJ in 1997 as Americas program coordinator and was deputy director from 2000 until his appointment as executive director in 2006. Simon began his career as a journalist in Latin America. He covered the Guatemalan civil war, the Zapatista uprising in Southern Mexico, the debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the economic turmoil in Cuba following the collapse of the Soviet Union. He is the author of Endangered Mexico: An Environment on the Edge (Sierra Club Books, 1997). He is a graduate of Amherst College and Stanford University.

Susan Lynne Walker, vice president, Institute of the Americas
Susan Lynne Walker, is vice president at the Institute of the Americas, at the University of California, San Diego, where she manages multi-national education and training programs on the most pressing issues facing U.S. and Latin American journalists. Susan Lynne spent two decades in Mexico as Latin America bureau chief for Copley Newspapers and the San Diego Union-Tribune, where she covered the political, economic and social shifts that marked Mexico’s transition to democracy. Walker is best known for her series of reports entitled, “Beardstown: Reflections of a Changing America.” That series, which reported on Mexican immigrants and their impact on and integration into a town in the Midwest, earned several national journalism awards and was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.

Business Journalism for the Non-Business Journalist: What Non-Business Journalists Need to Know to Cover the New Decade's Growing Number of Business Stories

Description: As business staffs shrink or are merged into other news departments, more and more general assignment reporters are being asked to do stories for which they are very ill-prepared. Quarterly earnings, annual reports, 10Ks, SEC filings - all of these can be foreign terms to many journalists outside the financial field but when studied properly by a trained reporter, they can yield many, many juicy and amazing stories.

Speaking: Rob Reuteman, 2010-11 president, Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) and former business editor, Rocky Mountain News; Warren Watson, executive director, SABEW

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Rob Reuteman, 2010-11 president, Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) and former business editor, Rocky Mountain News
Rob Reuteman, was became president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in March 2010, is a Denver-based freelance journalist. He had been business editor and columnist at the Rocky Mountain News for 12 years before it was shut down in February 2009. Reuteman has a master's degree in journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an undergraduate degree in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Warren Watson, executive director, SABEW
Veteran journalist and media association executive Warren Watson was named executive director of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in August 2009. Watson’s appointment coincided with SABEW’s moving its headquarters from the University of Missouri at Columbia to Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in downtown Phoenix. Before coming to SABEW, Watson spent six years as director of Ball State University-based J-Ideas, a non-profit organization providing resources to high-school journalism students and their instructors nationwide, since July 2004. He was at the American Press Institute from 1998 to 2004, the last four years as a vice president and acting co-president. While there, he worked on the grant that established the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, now housed at Arizona State University. In 2003, Watson was president of the Society of News Design and was editor of The American Editor, the magazine of the American Society of News Editors, in 2005-06.

Covering Campus Crime

Description: From sexual assaults to massive parking tickets, crime on college campuses is a story that college and professional media outlets struggle to cover. You’ll learn the laws governing access to crime records and how to get information from reluctant campus officials. The new edition of the Covering Campus Crime booklet will be distributed.

Speaking: Frank LoMonte, executive director, Student Press Law Center; Carolyn S. Carlson, assistant professor of journalism and citizen media, Kennesaw State University

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Carolyn S. Carlson, assistant professor of journalism and citizen media, Kennesaw State University
Carolyn S. Carlson is co-chairman of the SPJ FOI Committee’s Subcommittee On Campus Crime. For the past decade, she has been a leader in the effort to improve public access to records involving student discipline and crime on the nation’s college campuses. She founded the multi-organizational Campus Courts Task Force, which received an SPJ Freedom of Information Award in 1998 for its success in changing federal law to increase public access to college disciplinary records involving serious crime. Carlson has a doctorate from Georgia State University. She is an assistant professor of journalism and citizen media at Kennesaw State University. She is a former political press secretary and a longtime reporter and editor for The Associated Press. She was national president of SPJ in 1989-1990, chaired the SPJ Ethics Committee in 1993-94, and received SPJ’s Wells Key in 1994.

Frank LoMonte, executive director, Student Press Law Center
Frank LoMonte became Executive Director of the Student Press Law Center in January 2008, after practicing with the Atlanta-based law firm of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP and clerking for federal judges on the Northern District of Georgia and the Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Before law school, LoMonte was an investigative journalist and political columnist in state Capitol bureaus in Florida and Georgia and in Washington, D.C., with the Morris newspaper chain. LoMonte graduated magna cum laude from the University of Georgia School of Law, where he was a senior editor of the Georgia Law Review.

The Art of Interviewing

Description: Lots of journalists dread one thing as they prepare for a story: the interview. Unfortunately, journalism classes don’t teach reporters how to conduct a successful interview when they’re trying to “get the story.” In mock interviews, attendees will be coached on what type of questions one could and should ask during interviews. You’ll also get constructive feedback on which tactics work best so that you’ll feel at ease when interviewing someone for your next great story.

Speaking: Mary Hausch, assistant professor, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Bonnie Newman Davis, associate professor, Virginia Commonwealth University

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Bonnie Newman Davis, associate professor, Virginia Commonwealth University
Bonnie Newman Davis is an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Mass Communications. At VCU, Davis teaches courses in news writing, media ethics and online journalism. She also is academic director of the University’s Urban Journalism Workshop, an intense two-week journalism program for high school students that is cosponsored by the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund.

A graduate of the University of Michigan and North Carolina A&T State University, she has 30 years of experience in print journalism and online journalism as an editor, copy editor and reporter. While the majority of Davis’ newspaper career was with The Richmond-Times Dispatch (Va.) and Richmond News Leader, she also has worked for newspapers in Kentucky, North Carolina and Michigan. Davis has served as a visiting professor in the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Hampton University. For nearly two years, she served as an editor and writer for Reach Media Inc.’s BlackAmericaWeb.com., and currently is a contributing writer for thegrio.com, an MSNBC Web site. Davis also has worked in public relations, including a nearly three-year stint as director of communications for Virginia Union University. In 2007, she received the National Association of Black Journalists Ethel Payne Fellowship to report in Accra, Ghana in West Africa. She is a former board member of the National Association of Black Journalists, and currently sits on the board of the Virginia Pro Chapter, Society of Professional Journalists. Davis also serves as adviser for VCU’s student chapter of SPJ.

Mary Hausch, assistant professor, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Mary Hausch is an associate professor of journalism in the Hank Greenspun School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Prior to joining the faculty 19 years ago, she was managing editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal for more than a decade. In her 19 years at the newspaper she also was a reporter, assistant city editor and city editor. She has been an SPJ member for 40 years and previously served as president of the Las Vegas professional chapter.

Weird Careers in Journalism

Description: If you’re about to graduate or recently have, a future in journalism may look bleak. But there are good jobs for young journalists in places you might not think to look. Learn how to apply for them and how to separate yourself from all the other applicants.

Speaking: Michael Koretzky, student media adviser, Florida Atlantic University; director-at-large, SPJ national board of directors

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Michael Koretzky, student media adviser, Florida Atlantic University; director-at-large, SPJ national board of directors
Michael Koretzky was expelled from Boca Raton Academy in 1981, suspended from the University of Florida journalism school in 1989, fired from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 1997, and brought up on charges of "malfeasance" and "misfeasance" at Florida Atlantic University in 2005.

He currently advises the FAU student newspaper and freelances, including a weekly copyediting gig for the supermarket tabloids Globe and Examiner.

His career highlights include an appearance on VH1 after Marilyn Manson threatened to kill him (for being the first to report his real name) and creating and selling two alternative magazines, one to the Sun-Sentinel and the other to the one-armed heir of the Listerine fortune. His volunteer highlights include hosting www.southfloridamediajobs.com and copyediting for South Florida's Homeless Voice, the nation's second-largest homeless newspaper — which he did, ironically, from home.

Your Walking, Talking Resume

Description: Get tips on making the best first impression, then create your own “elevator pitch” and practice introducing yourself to colleagues.

Facilitating: Aiesha Little, freelance writer; Renee Petrina, instructor, Ball State University

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Aiesha Little, freelance writer
Aiesha D. Little is a freelance writer based in Cincinnati, Ohio. She spent nearly six years as an editor/writer at Cincinnati Magazine, a glossy city/regional publication covering Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Little started her journalism career in newspapers before switching to magazines while pursuing a master's degree at Xavier University. Her daily news work has appeared in The Saginaw (MI) News, The Detroit News, and The Poughkeepsie (NY) Journal. After interning with both the special sections and editorial departments of Cincinnati Magazine, she headed to Chicago to work as the associate editor for EdTech Magazine, an education technology quarterly. Little's involvement in the Society of Professional Journalists goes back to her undergraduate years at Central Michigan University, where she served as the chair of her chapter's diversity committee.

Renée Petrina, instructor, Ball State University
Renée Petrina is a member of the journalism faculty at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. She teaches editing and opinion writing as well as a media survey course for freshmen. A native of Richmond, Va., she graduated from Penn State University, where she was on the staff of The Daily Collegian. She is now a member of its alumni group's board. Petrina intends to complete her master's in Media Studies from Penn State in 2010. She completed five internships during college, including a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund editing internship at The Washington Post. After graduation, she worked on the copy desk of The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, Fla., then moved on to The Indianapolis Star. When she's not in her office or in the classroom, she enjoys volunteering, baking, and relaxing with her pets.

Five Things to do in Vegas before You Leave

Description: Get the inside local dope on where to go and what to do in Vegas from columnist Norm Clarke, whose column for the Las Vegas Review-Journal gives readers the inside track on what’s really going on inside Sin City. Norm also will talk about his career covering the celebrities who make his column one of the most entertaining must-reads of any big city columnist in the U.S. He is a natural-born storyteller and a gifted reporter.

Speaking: Norm Clarke, columnist, Las Vegas Review-Journal

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Norm Clarke, columnist, Las Vegas Review-Journal
If it happens in Vegas, Norm Clarke usually has it first.

Britney Spears' 55-hour marriage. A three-week scoop on her pregnancy. Celine Dion's move to Sin City. Linda Ronstadt's post-show eviction from the Aladdin. Norm had it covered in his "Vegas Confidential" column, which appears six times a week in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

He has written two books; “1,000 Naked Truths” an insider’s guide to the Strip and his new book, “Sinsational Celebrity Tales.”

The former "reporter of the year" at the Rocky Mountain News in Denver joined the Review-Journal in 1999 to cover one of the hottest gossip beats in the world.

During his 15 years in Denver he was a baseball writer, a sports columnist and a man-about-town columnist. The Montana native had a 12-year stint with The Associated Press, with stops in Cincinnati, San Diego and Los Angeles, the latter as coordinator of coverage for the 1984 Summer Olympics.

How Schools and Universities Use “Privacy” Law to Thwart Legitimate News Coverage

Description: The nation's obsession with family privacy has been a double-edged sword. For every family shielded from unnecessary embarrassment there are countless families whose stories of struggle and misery have been obstructed by "privacy" laws that put the wall of government bureaucracy between journalist and story. This session will throw the spotlight on FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Among the most important stories journalists cover involve children and public education, which makes FERPA one of the most important laws a journalist must understand and master. Learn what FERPA really says and, most importantly, what it does NOT say.

Speaking: Frank LoMonte, executive director, Student Press Law Center; David Chartrand, journalist-author, Kansas City

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David Chartrand, journalist-author, Kansas City
Kansas City journalist-author David Chartrand writes extensively about family issues, from education to mental illness. He is a member of SPJ’s Freedom of Information Committee and was part of the team that composed the new “FERPA Guide for Journalists.”

Frank LoMonte, executive director, Student Press Law Center
Frank LoMonte became Executive Director of the Student Press Law Center in January 2008, after practicing with the Atlanta-based law firm of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP and clerking for federal judges on the Northern District of Georgia and the Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Before law school, LoMonte was an investigative journalist and political columnist in state Capitol bureaus in Florida and Georgia and in Washington, D.C., with the Morris newspaper chain. LoMonte graduated magna cum laude from the University of Georgia School of Law, where he was a senior editor of the Georgia Law Review.

Covering the Gaming Industry from a Business, Political and Local Perspective

Description: The casino gaming industry has moved far beyond its roots in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Today, a form of legalized gambling — casinos, horse racing, lotteries — can be found in every state of the U.S. except Hawaii and Utah. State and local lawmakers are turning to the taxes provided by legalized gaming as a way to supplement diminishing budgets. As journalists, how do we cover the issues surrounding the gaming industry, which could have a business element, a political element and local lifestyle element all in the same story?

Speaking: Liz Benston, gaming reporter, Las Vegas Sun; Alan Feldman, senior vice president of public affairs, MGM Resorts International; Howard Stutz, gaming reporter and columnist, Las Vegas Review-Journal

What the Heck do I do with all this Census Data?

Description: In the fall of 2010 and in 2011, census data will be released that journalists can use for stories on how local communities have changed as far as ethnic composition, education levels, poverty, health care insurance and other demographics. The information can be used to find, among other things, the poorest neighborhood in a community and the neighborhood that has the most grandparents raising grandchildren. Journalists will need to know how to find and mine all the data coming our way. Additionally, journalists will need to be able to figure out how their community compares to others in the state and across the nation. Walk away with valuable skills on how to mine census data for great stories.

Speaking: Burt Hubbard, database reporter, Denver Post

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Burt Hubbard, database reporter, Denver Post
Burt Hubbard is a reporter for the Denver Post specializing in data base projects and stories. Previously, he held the same position at the Rocky Mountain News. His responsibilities included lead reporter for the 2000 Census and will do the same for the Post for the 2010 Census.

Worlds within Worlds

Description: Mainstream journalism has numerous issues at hand, but what about the world of Native American journalism — what are its issues? From the lack of freedom of the press to being recognized as legitimate journalists, join members of the Native American Journalists Association as they talk about their lack of media freedom, their fight to develop new media outlets for their respective nations and how non-Natives can more accurately cover tribes. There are massive differences between mainstream media and Native media, with the greatest difference being that most Native media does not have any freedom of the press (meaning mainstream media likewise has no rights on tribal lands); but there are other issues as well, including the fact many Native journalists are not recognized by state or federal governments.

Moderating: Dr. Becky Tallent, assistant professor, University of Idaho

Speaking: Jeffrey Harjo, executive director, Native American Journalists Association (NAJA); Bryan Pollard, editor, Cherokee Phoenix

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Dr. Becky Tallent, assistant professor, University of Idaho
Rebecca J. “Becky” Tallent joined the JAMM faculty summer 2006. She is an award-winning journalist and public relations specialist with more than 12 years experience as an energy, environmental and financial journalist plus 18 years experience as a public relations specialist, primarily with state government agencies.

Becky is a member of both the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the Native American Journalists Association (she is of Cherokee heritage), and she is the adviser to both students groups on campus. Becky is also a member of the SPJ National Education and Diversity committees. She earned both a B.A. in Journalism and M.Ed. in Journalism from the University of Central Oklahoma, and her Doctor of Education in Classroom Teaching/Mass Communications from Oklahoma State University in 1995. As part of her continuing education, Becky attended the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in the summer of 2007 to learn more about teaching Diversity Across the Curriculum. In 2007-2008, she held a Diversity Leadership Fellowship with the Society of Professional Journalists.

Becky teaches Media Writing, Reporting, Principles of Public Relations, Public Relations Campaigns, Critical Issues in the Media, and Cultural Diversity and the Media.

Jeffrey Harjo, executive director, Native American Journalists Association
Jeffrey Harjo has been executive director of the Native American Journalists Association since May 15, 2007. An enrolled member of the Seminole and Creek Nations, Jeff was a television engineer for many years in Oklahoma and New Mexico before becoming the telecommunications director for the Native Americans in Biological Sciences at Oklahoma State University. In 1997, he became communications director for the Seminole Nation in Oklahoma, then media coordinator for the Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma (1998) and editor in chief for the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma (2006). Jeff is also a former member of the Seminole Nation Development Authority Board of Directors and a former Gaming Commissioner for the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma. He earned his BA in history from Northeastern Oklahoma State University and studied towards a master’s in mass communication at Oklahoma State University.

The Nuts and Bolts of Freelancing

Description: Whether you're making a career change, looking for some extra income or simply interested in diversifying your portfolio, freelancing can be a terrific option. But it's not as easy as submitting story ideas and waiting for the checks to roll in. Hear from a group of freelancers on what it takes to get started. From setting up a home office to printing business cards and invoicing, as well as the various options for freelancers, including traditional media outlets, blogging for pay or editing books.

Speaking: Holly Fisher, Freelance Writer/Editor; Dana Neuts, Freelancer; Bruce Shutan, Freelancer

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Holly Fisher, Freelance Writer/Editor
Holly Fisher is a freelance writer and editor in the Charleston, S.C., area. She most recently was the research editor for SC Biz News LLC, publisher of the Charleston Regional Business Journal, Columbia Regional Business Report, GSA Business, SCBIZ magazine and other business news publications. She also served as special projects editor and electronic media editor for the company. Fisher is a former regional director and board member for the Society of Professional Journalists and a former board member of the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation. Fisher also has served as an adjunct professor at the College of Charleston. Her work has been published in newspapers in Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, Texas and South Carolina. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ohio University and a master’s of mass communication from the University of South Carolina. She lives in Mount Pleasant, S.C., with her husband, Clint; daughter, Katherine; and two Labrador retrievers.

Dana Neuts, Freelancer
Dana Neuts is a freelance magazine writer in the Seattle area. She focuses on business, community, local government, women’s issues and lifestyle pieces. She has served as president for the Western Washington Pro Chapter of SPJ and is a regional director candidate for Region 10. She is the owner and publisher of the community-based site iLoveKent.net.

Bruce Shutan, Freelancer
Bruce Shutan is a Los Angeles freelance writer who has written for about 75 publications or corporate entities. His extensive reporting on the American workplace dates to 1985, with a showbiz sideline developed in 2000 when he began contributing to Variety, a must-read for entertainment industry insiders for more than a century.

From Bullets to Book: Writing about the Hardest-Hit Unit in Iraq

Description: After witnessing an Army unit's worst day, Army Times reporter Kelly Kennedy went back through the soldiers' 15-month deployment to tell a complicated story. That story features a Medal of Honor winner, a first sergeant who killed himself in front of his men, a vehicle that rolled through a deep-buried IED leaving it and the men inside in flames, two 30-ton Bradleys that drove over deep-buried IEDs killing 10 men, and a 40-man platoon that mutinied because the troops had seen too much. Kennedy will discuss interviewing subjects who have been through heavy trauma, earning the trust of infantry men after one of them lined her up in his sites because he was so angry when a reporter invaded their tragic day. She will address what reporters can do to take care of themselves when reporting the horrors of war — or car accidents or crime or abuse.

Speaking: Kelly Kennedy, reporter, Army Times; author, “They Fought for Each Other”

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Kelly Kennedy, reporter, Army Times; author, “They Fought for Each Other”
Kelly Kennedy served in the United States Army from 1987 to 1993, including tours in the Middle East during Desert Storm, and in Mogadishu, Somalia. After earning her journalism degree at Colorado State University in 1997, she began her writing career as an education reporter for the Ogden Standard-Examiner in Utah, a criminal justice reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune, and a family and education reporter with the Oregonian in Portland. While earning a master's degree in journalism at the University of Colorado, Kennedy taught journalism classes at both her alma mater and the University of Northern Colorado. After completing her master's degree, she worked an internship at The Chicago Tribune before arriving in 2005 at Army Times, where she remains today as a medical reporter. In 2010, she received an Honorary Mention John B. Oakes award for her reporting on burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2008, she was named a finalist for the Michael Kelly Award for a series about a unit she embedded with in Iraq. She is also a 2008 Ochberg Fellow, sponsored by the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma; and a 2008 Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Foundation Fellow. Her book, They Fought for Each Other, based on the “Blood Brothers” series she wrote for Military Times, came out March 2. She serves as president of Military Reporters & Editors. In her spare time, she dances ballet and completely loses her military bearing.

Mining Facebook, Twitter, etc.: The Ethical Side of It

Description: More and more, journalists are turning to Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites to gather news and disseminate it. These new platforms bring new decisions, such as: Is it off limits to be a "friend” with people we cover or to indicate you “like” particular items? Have our standards changed as new avenues have developed? Is it OK to mix professional and personal contacts in social media groups? How much do we have to watch what we say in these settings? Explore practical ways to use this new generation of tools and outlets as a journalist without compromising objectivity and ethical balance.

Moderating: Jane Kirtley, Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law, University of Minnesota

Speaking: Jerry Ceppos, dean, Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada

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Jane Kirtley, Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law, University of Minnesota
Jane E. Kirtley has been the Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota since August 1999. Prior to that, she was Executive Director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Arlington, Virginia, for 14 years.

She was appointed Director of The Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law in May 2000, and was named to the affiliated faculty of the University of Minnesota Law School in March 2001. During the Spring 2004 semester, she was a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Suffolk University Law School in Boston, Massachusetts.

Kirtley speaks frequently on First Amendment and freedom of information issues, both in the United States and abroad. She also writes the “First Amendment Watch” column for American Journalism Review.

Prof. Kirtley received her J.D. degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1979. She holds bachelor’s and master’s of journalism degrees from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Haiti Earthquake: Covering the Tragedy with No End in Sight

Description: There’s no question that the January 2010 Haiti earthquake was a disaster of catastrophic proportions. But with any such event, covering it from a news perspective becomes a lesson in so many considerations, it’s almost overwhelming. Hear from reporters who were on the ground in the days and weeks following the earthquake covering the basic five W’s of breaking and continuing news. But there’s much more to reporting such a complex and ongoing human and economic tragedy. After the extreme media frenzy has passed and death tolls stop leading newscasts, how can journalists and news outlets continue to cover Haiti (and other disasters)?

Speaking: Carrie Kahn, correspondent, NPR; Jacqueline Charles, Caribbean/Haiti correspondent, The Miami Herald

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Jacqueline Charles, Caribbean/Haiti correspondent, The Miami Herald
Jacqueline Charles, a Haitian-Turks Islander, is The Miami Herald’s Caribbean correspondent, covering Haiti and the English-Speaking Caribbean. She began her journalism career at The Miami Herald as a high school intern in 1986 and was hired upon graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her first overseas assignment — the return of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide — came shortly after. In 2008, she was the first to report on the mass devastation and death in Cabaret, Haiti caused by back-to-back storms. She subsequently reported on the going impact of the storms in several Haitian cities, from children dying of malnutrition to school collapses to the impact on the country's few maternity wards. Last year, she was awarded International Reporter of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists for that coverage. She was also awarded first place Sunshine State award by the Society of Professional, the United Way of Miami-Dade County and most recently, the Florida Immigrant Advocacy.

Carrie Kahn, correspondent, NPR
Carrie Kahn is a correspondent for NPR's National Desk based at NPR West in Culver City, CA. Kahn's reports can be heard on NPR's award-winning news programs including All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition.

Kahn has frequently worked on assignment for NPR throughout Mexico, California and the West. In 2005, Kahn was part of NPR’s extensive coverage of Hurricane Katrina, where she investigated claims of euthanasia in New Orleans hospitals, recovery efforts along the Gulf Coast and resettlement of city residents in Houston, TX. She has covered her share of Hurricanes since, fire storms and mudslides in Southern California and the controversial life and death of pop-icon Michael Jackson. Kahn continues to cover immigration and immigrant communities throughout the country, as well as drug trafficking and border enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2008, as China hosted the world’s athletes, Kahn recorded a remembrance of her Jewish grandfather and his decision to compete in Hitler’s 1936 Olympics.

Before coming to NPR in 2004, Kahn worked for 2 1/2 years at NPR station KQED in San Francisco, first as an editor and then as a general assignment reporter with a focus on immigration reporting. From 1994 to 2001, Kahn was the border and community affairs reporter at NPR station KPBS in San Diego, where she covered immigration, cross-border issues and the city's ethnic communities.

While at KPBS, Kahn received numerous awards, including back-to-back Sol Price Awards for Responsible Journalism from the Society of Professional Journalists. She won the California/Nevada Associated Press award for Best News Feature, eight Golden Mike Awards from the Radio & TV News Association of Southern California and numerous prizes from the San Diego Press Club and the Society of Professional Journalists of San Diego. She was also awarded three consecutive La Pluma Awards from the California Chicano News Media Association.

Prior to joining KPBS, Kahn worked for NPR station KUSP and published a bilingual community newspaper in Santa Cruz, CA.

Kahn is frequently called upon to lecture or discuss border issues and bi-national journalism. Her work has been cited for fairness and balance by the Poynter Institute of Media Studies. She was awarded and completed a Pew Fellowship in International Journalism at Johns Hopkins University.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Kahn received a Bachelors degree from UC Santa Cruz in Biology. For several years she was a human genetics researcher in California and in Costa Rica. She has traveled extensively throughout Mexico, Central America, Europe and the Middle East, where she worked on a English/Hebrew/Arabic magazine.

Carrie lives somewhat close to the beach in Los Angeles and loves to go for runs near the shore with her husband, two girls and their cockapoo Mona.

Photo by Debbie Accame

SPJ on Ethics

Description: A new edition of SPJ's popular ethics book, now titled “Journalism Ethics: A Casebook of Professional Conduct for News Media,” is being published this month. Speakers will discuss what has changed in journalism ethics since the third edition of the book appeared in 1999, how SPJ's Ethics Committee is always turning up new dilemmas, and show how to use case studies in solving ethical problems.

Moderating: Liz Hansen, member, SPJ Ethics Committee

Speaking: Fred Brown, vice chairman, SPJ Ethics Committee; Andy Schotz, chairman, SPJ Ethics Committee; Sara Stone, member, SPJ Ethics Committee

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Liz Hansen, member, SPJ Ethics Committee
Elizabeth K. Hansen is a professor in the Department of Communication at Eastern Kentucky University where she has taught since 1987. She teaches Community Journalism, Media Ethics, Writing and Reporting News, Writing and Selling Nonfiction, Media Law, Public Affairs Reporting and Feature Writing.

Hansen holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, a master’s degree in journalism and mass communication from Iowa State University, and a Ph.D. in communication with emphases in mass media law and ethics from the University of Kentucky.

Hansen worked as a reporter for The Springdale News and the Arkansas Democrat in Arkansas and the State-Times in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She also is a freelance writer whose work has been published in newspapers and magazines in Mississippi, Kentucky and elsewhere. Before joining the faculty at Eastern, she taught at Iowa State University, the University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Kentucky.

Hansen, who has been a member of SPJ for 30 years, is immediate past president of the Bluegrass Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and advises the Eastern Kentucky University SPJ chapter. She serves on the steering committee for the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, a multi-state, multi-institution program headquartered at the University of Kentucky. She is also a member of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. She received the 2004 Russ Metz Most Valuable Member Award from the Kentucky Press Association for her work on a statewide public records audit.

Fred Brown, vice chairman, SPJ Ethics Committee
Fred Brown is a former national president of SPJ (1997-98) and is very active on its ethics committee. He writes a column on ethics for Quill magazine and served on the committee that wrote the Society’s 1996 code of ethics.

Brown officially retired from The Denver Post in early 2002, but continues to write a Sunday editorial page column for the newspaper. He also does analysis for Denver’s NBC television station, teaches communication ethics at the University of Denver, and is a principal in Hartman & Brown, LLP, a media training and consulting firm. He has won several awards for writing and community service, including a Sigma Delta Chi Award for editorial writing in 1988. He is an Honor Alumnus of Colorado State University, a member of the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame, and serves on the boards of directors of Colorado Public Radio, the Colorado Freedom of Information Council and the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation.

Andy Schotz, chairman, SPJ Ethics Committee
Andy Schotz is a reporter for The Herald-Mail, a daily newspaper in Hagerstown, Md. He has covered a variety of beats, including city hall and police and courts. He has sometimes filled in as city editor. He covered the Maryland statehouse during the 2007 and 2008 sessions. When he joined the paper in 2000, he was the one person in the one-person Berkeley County, W.Va., bureau.

Schotz is president of SPJ’s Washington, D.C., Pro chapter and has helped the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association with some projects. A Long Island native, he has a bachelor’s degree from the University at Albany in upstate New York. He previously worked for eight years at The Altamont Enterprise, a weekly paper outside Albany, as a reporter and, for part of that time, an editor.

Sara Stone, member, SPJ Ethics Committee
Dr. Sara Stone, professor of journalism at Baylor University, teaches courses in media law and ethics and reporting and is the director of undergraduate studies for the journalism department at Baylor.

She served on a nationwide Task Force on the Ethics of the Media Coverage of the Mount Carmel standoff sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists. She was national vice president for campus chapter affairs for the Society of Professional Journalists from 1988 to 1994. She is the SPJ student chapter adviser at Baylor.

Stone has professional journalistic experience in both print and broadcast. After graduating from the University of New Mexico in 1970 she joined the staff of the Amarillo Globe-News where she served as a reporter, copy editor, night news editor and assistant night city editor over the next four-and-a-half years. She obtained a master’s degree in mass communications at Texas Tech University and taught in the journalism department at West Texas State University (now West Texas A&M) from 1974 to 1980. During the summers from 1976 through 1980 she worked as a reporter and weekend co-anchor for television station KVII, the ABC affiliate in Amarillo.

From 1980 to 1982, Stone attended the University of Tennessee where she earned a Ph.D. in communications. While a doctoral student, she worked part-time as a copy editor for the Knoxville News-Sentinel. She was named an outstanding doctoral student in the College of Communications at Tennessee, where she was a Bickel Fellow.

She has been on the faculty of the Baylor University journalism department since the fall of 1982. She has attended journalism educator workshops put on by both the American Press Institute and by the Poynter Institute. In 1987, she also was named the Outstanding Society of Professional Journalists Campus Chapter Adviser in the United States.

Relevant Reform: Covering Health Care in a Way that Matters

Description: The impact of health care reform is likely to be with us for the foreseeable future. As a journalist, you'll want to know how to tell these stories in a way that's relevant to the audience. What has been covered well and what important issues have been underreported? How should the story change based on your audience? Participants will walk away with answers and resources for doing their own reporting.

Speaking: Marshall Allen, reporter, Las Vegas Sun

How to Use Liveblogging and Webcasts to Enhance your Reporting

Description: Online tools for liveblogging and webcasting have the ability to offer readers and viewers insight into an event that was not possible before the Web. Learn the tools you need to know to create live online content that adds another dimension to your coverage and engages your audience.

Speaking: Mark Luckie, 10,000Words.net blogger; author, “The Digital Journalist’s Handbook”

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Mark Luckie, 10,000Words.net blogger; author, “The Digital Journalist’s Handbook”
Mark S. Luckie is a digital journalist and author of the digital journalism blog 10,000 Words and The Digital Journalist's Handbook, a guide to the tools necessary to thrive in the digital newsroom. Luckie has produced multimedia and interactive stories for the Center for Investigative Reporting, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, The Contra Costa Times, and is a former crime and justice reporter for The Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Luckie is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley School of Journalism where he received his master's in journalism and Bethune-Cookman College where he received bachelor's degrees in broadcast production and Spanish.

It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences

Description: To be a great writer, you must write great sentences. But most journalists never take the time to learn what makes some sentences sing and others stink. This session will offer rare insights into this most-critical writing unit. Taking a mechanical approach to breaking down and rebuilding sentences, Casagrande will show you how to streamline your writing in a way that turns clunky, amateur prose into high-quality professional work.

Speaking: June Casagrande, author, “It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences”

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June Casagrande, author, “It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences”
June Casagrande is author of "It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences" and "Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies." She got her start working as a news assistant in the community news division of the Los Angeles Times before moving up to features writer, city hall reporter and city editor of several Times Community News supplements. She writes the weekly "A Word, Please" column on language and grammar that appears in the Glendale News-Press and Burbank Leader sections of the Times and is also self-syndicated to several other papers. She works part time as a freelance copy editor in the Special Sections and Custom Publications departments of the Los Angeles Times.

Smashing the Silos!

Description: Admit it. We’ve all been there at some point during our news careers, if not there right now. Isolated information silos simply do not work well in the real-time, on-demand media world. Period. So why do they still exist and how can we overcome the perils that come with them? In the old, television/newspaper/radio-only world, the silo mentality drove production but inhibited creativity. As traditional news organizations struggle to thrive online and within the mobile space, structures that reinforce silos make even less sense. Tomorrow’s media is about networks and links rather than sections and silos. How newsrooms organize themselves will play a role in how well they adapt. Break out the wrecking ball to help bring down those suppressive silos!

Speaking: Victor Hernandez, director of domestic newsgathering, CNN//US; Mike Toppo, senior director of news operations & production, CNN.com

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Victor Hernandez, director of domestic newsgathering, CNN//US
Victor Hernandez is a broadcast news executive with CNN Atlanta who helps to lead a massive army of journalists in constant pursuits of upholding the company’s long history of journalistic integrity, engaging the network’s audience and most importantly — developing strong individuals into strong leaders.

Prior to accepting a news management position with CNN at their global headquarters in Atlanta in 2003, Victor helped to lead newsrooms at local NBC television stations in Fresno and San Diego, California. As one of only two persons with the title and responsibilities of ‘Director of Coverage’ at the “Most Trusted Name in News”, Victor is charged with the oversight of CNN Domestic Newsgathering which includes a 50-person assignment desk, 10 U.S. bureaus and more than 900 television and newspaper affiliate partnerships.

Whether it’s overseeing the ‘big picture’ breaking news coverage demands and expectations from company headquarters or commanding troops on the ground from such noteworthy events as the historical 2008 Presidential election, unraveling complexities of the economic collapse or planning and execution of intense coverage from epic disasters such as hurricanes, floods and wildfires — Victor’s core leadership beliefs have always been encased in leading with vision and respect.

His work with new media, emerging technologies and convergence is amongst the most innovative and cutting edge at CNN. Victor is viewed as an organization leader in the areas of new media, social networking and multimedia journalism. He has spent the past year building and leading the CNN All Platform Journalism initiative, which is designed to ensure the global news organization remains at the forefront of exciting and evolving storytelling opportunities.

Victor is actively involved with Journalism curriculums at the Poynter Institute of Media Studies; first as a Poynter student within its Leadership classrooms and now most recently as a visiting faculty member for Leadership for New Managers 2007 and an Ethics Fellow for 2008-2009.

Victor is originally from California’s bountiful Central Valley, where he attended California State University, Fresno. He is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Investigative Reporters and Editors and Society of Professional Journalists. Victor is married to Shannon Gonzales, also from the Fresno area. The two live in suburban Atlanta with their three children.

Mike Toppo, senior director of news operations & production, CNN.com
Mike Toppo is the supervising producer for news production for CNN.com. In this role he oversees the news writers, assignment pro- ducers and interactive team. He was named to this position in November 2007 and is based at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

Previously, Toppo worked as the senior executive pro- ducer for CNN’s daytime programming, CNN Newsroom. Toppo also was executive producer for CNN’s daily newscast Live From. Before Live From, he was an executive producer for CNN’s TalkBack Live with Arthel Neville, television’s first interactive talk show. Toppo joined CNN TalkBack Live in 1996 as a producer and was promoted to senior producer in 1997. In this capacity, he helped guide the overall direction and development of the program.

Before joining CNN, Toppo worked at WKBW-TV in Buffalo, N.Y., where he was the producer for A.M. Buffalo, the station’s morning news program. While at WKBW-TV, he received an Emmy Award nomination for a show on Super- Bowl XXVII.

Toppo earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journal- ism from Buffalo State College.

How to Grow Audience Organically

Description: This session presents a review of techniques to grow your audience without spending marketing dollars. Approaches include designs that leverage the full value of original content, present next generation thinking about search optimization and analytics, and a review of effective social media strategies. As part of the session, Salon.com will share data relating to search, social media and audience growth since launching a newly designed and expanded website.

Speaking: Richard Gingras, CEO, Salon.com; Mark Briggs, co-founder and CEO, Serra Media, director of digital media, King 5 TV Seattle and author, “Journalism Next” and “Journalism 2.0”

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Mark Briggs, co-founder and CEO, Serra Media, director of digital media, King 5 TV Seattle and author, “Journalism Next” and “Journalism 2.0”
Mark Briggs coined the term Journalism 2.0 in 2006 when he was invited to write a book about digital literacy for journalists based on a training program he had created at The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash. His first book, Journalism 2.0: How to survive and thrive in the digital age, was published by J-Lab and the Knight Citizen News Network in 2007 and downloaded as a PDF more than 200,000 times in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

As part of his mission to help journalists transform in the digital age, Mark has served as a speaker, trainer and consultant for various projects around the U.S. and Europe.

Briggs delivering a presentation in Denmark in November, 2008. (Photo courtesy: Karin Hogh)

Mark recently finished an updated version of the book, titled Journalism Next and published by CQPress in December 2009. You can find it on Amazon.com.

He is also co-founder and CEO of Serra Media, a Seattle-based technology company that connects local publishers with interactive applications and digital platforms that power online innovations. Serra Media's first product is called Newsgarden and you can read more about it here.

Previously, Briggs was assistant managing editor for interactive news at The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash. from 2004-2008 and new media director at The Herald in Everett, Wash. from 2000-2004. He was named to Presstime magazine's "20 under 40" list for 2007 and he earned journalism degrees from Gonzaga University and the University of North Carolina. You can find him writing on LostRemote.com about the future for local media, or on TripIt, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Richard Gingras, CEO, Salon.com
Richard Gingras was appointed Chief Executive Officer in May 2009. Prior to joining Salon, he worked as an advisor to various technology startups and also served as an advisor on media product strategy to the executive team at Google from November 2007 through December 2008. From June 2002 through July 2007 he was founder, CEO and Chairman of Goodmail Systems and continued as Chairman through October 2008. From September 2000 through June 2002, he was an advisor to various technology startups including Audiomill (merged into Real Networks, April 2002), technology incubator ChanceTechAV, web applications platform provider Laszlo Systems, custom book publisher MyPublisher, and broadband applications platform developer Sugar Media. From January 1996 through January 1999, he was the founding Vice President, Programming and Editor-in-Chief of @Home Network and following that company's acquisition of Excite became Senior Vice President and General Manager of Excite@Home's consumer portal division through September 2000. In late 1995 he assembled the seed financing for Salon.com and has served as an informal advisor to the company. From September 1993 to January 1996 he was Group Product Manager, Online Services at Apple Computer. From the spring of 1992 through July 1993 he was Group Product Manager at the Peter Norton Computing division of Symantec Corporation. From September 1987 through May 1993 he was Chief Executive Officer of MediaWorks, Inc. Mr. Gingras holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Boston College.

15 Years After Simpson: How the “Trial of the Century” and New Media Have Changed the High-Profile News-Coverage Landscape

Description: Technology, including the Internet, and repercussions from the infamous 1995 Simpson murder case have vastly affected news media coverage of high-profile trials. Listen to what has changed and why, and how journalists can help courts not only be more accessible, but understand that doing so is to everyone’s benefit.

Speaking: Jerrianne Hayslett, court-media consultant and author, “Anatomy of a Trial”; Linda Deutsch, special correspondent, The Associated Press

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Linda Deutsch, special correspondent, The Associated Press
In four decades with The Associated Press, Linda Deutsch has established herself as the nation’s leading expert in coverage of high profile trials. From Manson to O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson, Phil Spector and many others in between, she has become known for her fair and unbiased coverage.

A recent issue of “Current Biography,” summing up her career said, “She has been ranked among the foremost American courtroom journalists of modern times....She is best known for her detailed, objective reporting on some of the most sensational, newsworthy and influential trials of recent decades. ”

Linda has been the eyes and ears of the public at trials including those of: Sirhan Sirhan, Charles Manson, Patty Hearst, Angela Davis, Daniel Ellsberg, John Z. DeLorean, Exxon Valdez skipper Joseph Hazelwood, William Kennedy Smith and the Menendez Brothers.

She added an exclamation point to her career with her coverage of the O.J. Simpson criminal and civil trials and was a Pulitzer Prize nominee for her work on the case. The Simpson trial brought Linda’s face as well as her byline into millions of homes as she was called upon by TV news shows to share her expertise with their audiences. She continues to appear on numerous shows. She co-authored the book, “Verdict: The Chronicle of the O.J. Simpson Trial,” and is a contributor to the recent AP history: “Breaking news: How The Associated Press Has Covered War, Peace and Everything Else.”

In recent years, she drew a number of celebrity assignments including the trials of Michael Jackson, Robert Blake and Phil Spector. Following the death of Jackson, she has covered the civil court proceedings over his estate and the investigation of his doctor, Conrad Murray, who now faces a charge of involuntary manslaughter.. She has also been following new developments in the Roman Polanski case which she covered in the 1970s

Linda is the recipient of numerous awards including the University of Missouri’s Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism and the Society of Professional Journalists national First Amendment Award.

She is a frequent speaker to attorneys and judges’ organizations and journalism schools and organizations and has been featured at American Bar Association gatherings. She has been profiled in many publications including Los Angeles Magazine, Editor and Publisher magazine and the Los Angeles Times magazine. .

Linda is a native of New Jersey and a graduate of Monmouth University in West Long Branch, N.J.

Jerrianne Hayslett, court-media consultant and author, “Anatomy of a Trial”
Jerrianne Hayslett is a court-media consultant specializing in national and international court programs and projects. She is author of Anatomy of a Trial (University of Missouri Press 2008, www.anatomorofatrial.com) for which she recently received the (California Supreme Court) Justice Armand Arabian Law & Media Award from the Valley Community Legal Foundation.

She has served as a court information officer/media liaison, and worked as a newspaper reporter and editor at California and Nevada dailies. Her consulting in Indonesia and the Balkans has focused on improving public access to courts. She has conducted media training and presented seminars for judges, prosecutors and journalists in Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Serbia, and in Serbia developed a public information component for the Belgrade District Court’s War Crimes and Organized Crime departments.

As Los Angeles Superior Court’s director of public information, she coordinated with the media on numerous high-profile cases, including O.J. Simpson, Menendez brothers, Heidi Fleiss and the Rodney King beating. She has spoken at numerous conferences and symposia in the United States and abroad. Her articles have appeared in The Judges’ Journal, California Lawyer, Court Today, The Bench, Court Manager, NJC Alumni and California county magazines. She holds a journalism degree from California State University, Fullerton, where she is listed on the College of Communications Alumni Wall of Fame.

The Business of Freelancing: How to Make it as a Full-Time Free Agent Writer

Description: Forget those lofty ideals, folks: Writing is a craft, but freelancing is a business. With this in mind, surviving as a full-time freelance writer in today’s economy requires a combination of moxie, marketing savvy, rudimentary math skills and the willingness to diversify. Hear exactly how journalists can recalibrate their mindsets to think like small business owners, and lay out precisely what’s necessary to get on the fast-track to a six-figure income. Topics will include learning to think like an entrepreneur, establishing and meeting financial goals, diversifying your business, serving customers in the digital age and marketing (and e-marketing) strategies that work. This is not a session for first-time freelancers or journalists who think they may want to freelance part-time. Instead, it is geared toward full-time freelance writers who are interested in taking their businesses to another level.

Speaking: Matt Villano, Freelance Journalist

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Matt Villano, Freelance Journalist
Matt Villano proudly never has held a full-time job. As a full-time freelancer since 1998, Villano has penned pieces for publications such as TIME, Newsweek, The New York Times, GQ, Sunset, Coastal Living, Backpacker, San Francisco Chronicle and more. Currently, he covers subjects including travel, parenting, education, technology, business, science and gambling (yes, gambling). On the multimedia front, Villano moderates an average of 40 Webinars annually for companies in the high-tech space, and has put together a number of audio and video podcasts for clients in various industries. Villano also does corporate writing—mostly white papers, case studies and newsletters, but occasionally speeches, too. The resident of Healdsburg, Calif., rounds out his freelance business with copyediting work and intermittent consulting gigs.

Google 101 for Journalists

Description: Every day, millions of people around the world use Google’s search engine to find what they’re looking for. Editors, journalists, producers and others in the media have long known just how essential it is to be able to find and use information efficiently and effectively. This Google 101 introduction, taught by Google staff members, demonstrates ways to work more efficiently and effectively on the Web. Learn how to get the most from Search and other free tools from Google. Whether you’re in broadcast, print or digital journalism, this session will introduce ways you can search smarter, keep better tabs on your beat, see what’s hot and what’s not, add a visual edge to your online content, and use Google on the go when you’re reporting in the field. Walk away with tips and tricks and an online resource for Google Search, Hot Trends, Insights, Reader, News, Maps and more.

Spill It: Expert Advice on Reporting the Oil Disaster

Description: It's a slow-motion environmental catastrophe, and covering the massive Gulf oil spill requires comprehensive reporting across many disciplines: engineering and economics; science and the environment; politics; public policy; and law. Participants will walk away with dozens of story ideas and new resources to help in producing relevant coverage for local communities.

Speaking: Adam Bryant, deputy managing editor — Business section, The New York Times

Questions about the SPJ National Convention?
Call 317/927-8000 or send an e-mail to convention@spj.org.