Pioneer Press Hosts AAJA-Knight Ridder Fellows Program
AAJA, July 18, 2003
Media Contact:
Pat Effenberger, APR Communications Manager
(651) 228-5016
peffenberger@pioneerpress.com
St. Paul, Minnesota -- Five Asian-American journalists received an orientation to the business side of the newspaper industry in a special program hosted in mid-July at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, a Knight Ridder newspaper.
The program, the first of its kind for the Asian American Journalists Association and San Jose-based Knight Ridder, was designed by AAJA to help provide the “big picture” of media operations to participants in the three-day fellowship program.
The program is intended to help “retain in the business talented people who might be lost to other industries” if they’re not aware of opportunities for personal growth and advancement on the business side of media companies, says Mae Cheng, AAJA president and a staff writer at Newsday.
The program, hosted at the Pioneer Press by Bruce Bryant, vice president/CFO, featured an orientation to the Twin Cities, including an overview of news coverage challenges in a market with competing daily newspapers; information on Pioneer Press research, marketing and promotional activities; overviews of circulation and advertising operations, plus tours of office, production and circulation field distribution facilities. Participants met with numerous Pioneer Press managers and top leaders, including Publisher Harold Higgins, a former reporter and editor who made his own transition to the business side with posts as publisher of several Knight Ridder newspapers.
The program offered a unique opportunity for AAJA and Knight Ridder to work together, says Larry Olmstead, corporate vice president for staff development and diversity. “We want to make sure diverse people have paths to personal development and paths to leadership positions” across our operations.
The fellows, selected in a competitive application process, include Robert W.P. Boos, news editor for AZCentral.com, Web site of the Arizona Republic; James Hu, reporter for CNET News.com, San Francisco; Kimberly A. Moy, senior health programming manager AOL, Dulles, Va.; Nhien T. Nguyen, editor/staff writer for International Examiner, Seattle; and Ron Recinto, assistant Oakland editor for the Detroit Free Press.
The Pioneer Press, Minnesota’s first newspaper and the winner of three Pulitzer Prizes, serves readers and advertisers in the Twin Cities’ East Metro region and Western Wisconsin. The Pioneer Press has daily circulation of 191,812 and Sunday circulation of 251,574.
Email
Print