The Journalism Salute

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by publisher Donna Ladd and senior reporter Ashton Pittman of the Mississippi Free Press, a non-profit media outlet that has published a considerable amount of important reporting about the state. Donna and Ashton talked about the origin of the site and multiple stories that they’re working on. The most prominent of those is a series of pieces following racist...

On this episode, Mark Simon talked to Khushbu Shah, the editor-in-chief of The Fuller Project. Khushbu talked about The Fuller Project’s groundbreaking reporting on women around the world. She shared examples of reporting they’ve done and how they come up with the stories they publish on topics such as childcare challenges during the pandemic and immigration issues, focusing on the people impacted...

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by Dr. Hannah Brown and Anna Hamilton of The Marjorie. The Marjorie is a woman-owned reporting non-profit covering women and the environment in Florida. Hannah and Anna explained their website’s name and explained what they cover, how they define “the environment,” and who their audience is. They shared examples of articles that had appeared on their website,...

In this episode, Mark Simon is joined by 3 college students formerly from Kirkwood (Mo.) High School: Emma Lingo, Maddie Meyers, and Kiden-Aloyse Smith to talk about a project they did for their high school newspaper in 2020. They were part of a group that took The 1619 Project, the Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles and podcasts from the New York Times and adapted it to cover their largely...

On this episode, Mark Simon talks with Hadar Harris, the executive director of the Student Press Law Center.  Hadar talked about what the SPLC does and the different things that the organization is doing to commemorate Student Press Freedom Day on Friday, February 26. She spoke extensively about the challenges that students faced in 2020 and how they overcame them, the different forms of censorshi...

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by Ken Lemon, a longtime TV reporter for WSOC-TV in Charlotte and vice-president for broadcast for the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). Ken talked about his career as a reporter, how he comes up with story ideas, a recent feature he did on an incident that happened at a baseball game many years ago, and a TV show he recently hosted, Conversati...

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by P.J. Cabrera, a journalism teacher at Judson High School in Converse, Texas (not far from San Antonio) and the coordinator of the Scholastic Journalism Week committee for the Journalism Education Association. P.J. shared the story of his path to teaching journalism, the challenge of teaching in a pandemic and teaching journalism in a state that allows schoo...

On this episode, Mark is joined by FiveThirtyEight election analyst Nathaniel Rakich. Nathaniel talked about the path to his current job, how he collaborates with other members of the website on stories, how he comes up with story ideas, and the best way to understand polls and election data. He also provided advice to aspiring journalists who want to work extensively with data. Thank you for list...

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by Robin Kemp, the founder of the  Clayton Crescent  in Clayton County, Georgia. Robin talked about her 30+ year career and how she’s really been a journalist since she was “in utero.” Her path to her current role included stops at CNN as a news writer, The Weather Channel as a founding editor of the scrolling ticker that occupies the bottom of the screen, and...

On this episode, Mark Simon talked to Bay State Banner reporter Morgan Mullings, a recent grad of St. John's, whose opportunity to begin her professional journalism career began via Report for America. Morgan talked about her work with the Banner, and why it's important for a newspaper whose readership is geared to the African-American community to have a young black female writer. She sha...

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by Arelis Hernández, a vice president for print for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and a reporter covering Texas and the US-Mexican border for the Washington Post. Arelis talked about the goals of the organization, making sure Hispanic journalists receive opportunities for advancement and aren't unfairly treated when it comes to the indus...

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by University of Alabama journalism instructor, Meredith Cummings, who also is the director of the Alabama Scholastic Press Association (ASPA) and the National Elementary Scholastic Press Association (NESPA). Meredith talked about what teaching journalism to college students in a her state is like, the way she approaches her classes, and how sports has played...

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by Hillel Goldberg, editor and publisher of the Intermountain Jewish News, a weekly family-owned newspaper and website that has served the Rocky Mountain Jewish community for more than 100 years. Rabbi Goldberg talked about the evolution of the publication and the importance of both his father and mother to the paper’s direction. He explained the intent of the...

On this episode, Mark Simon was joined by Georges Budagu Makoko and Kathreen Harrison, the publisher and editor-in-chief of Amjambo Africa, a monthly newspaper and website published in 6 languages that is devoted to covering the African immigrant experience in Maine. Georges and Kathreen talked about Georges’ journey to the United States and Kathreen’s career as a teacher and how they came togethe...

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by The Forward editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren, formerly a longtime reporter and editor for the New York Times . Jodi talked about making the move from The Times to an organization with a long, proud history of covering Judaism that is now a subscription-based online publication. She talked about stories they had done – from coverage of prominent issues like the...

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by Kinnelon (NJ) High School journalism teacher Alana Van Der Sluys, who is also a vice-president of the Garden State Scholastic Press Association (GSSPA). Alana explained the role of the GSSPA and shared her path to teaching. She described how the school’s journalism program, which has 3 classes and allows students to get college credit, works. Alana also tal...

On this episode, Mark talked to Ashton Lattimore, editor-in-chief of Prism, whose editorial goal is to center the people, places, and issues currently underreported by national media and treat Black, Indigenous, People of Color, women, the LGBTQ+ community and other invisibilized groups as experts on their lived experiences, resilience, and fight for justice.    Ashton talked about what it was lik...

On this episode, Mark is joined by Bettina Chang , one of the co-founders and executive editorial director for City Bureau , a Chicago-based non-profit journalism lab that both covers the city and works with the community to produce impactful, equitable and publicly-responsive reporting Bettina talked about the group and what led to its formation in 2015. She explained how they try to reimagine lo...

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by Dr. Siri Carpenter, the co-founder of The Open Notebook, a science journalism organization that helps writers with every aspect of their work - from pitching articles to understanding terminology and data and much more. Siri talked about how her career as a science writer, and what led her and Jeanne Erdman to start their website, and the resources her site...

On this episode, Mark Simon talks with Teri Finneman and Nick Hirshon of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication  ( AEJMC ) – History Division. They are journalism professors at the University of Kansas and William Paterson University respectively. Terri is the executive producer and co-host and Nick is a regular co-host of the podcast, Journalism History, a fun and inte...

On this episode, we’re joined by Crosstown LA Publisher and editor, Gabriel Kahn, a professor at the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. Crosstown LA covers the neighborhoods of Los Angeles in a different way – through data. Their stories are brief, visually-vibrant, and phone-friendly. Gabriel explained how the project was born and how the Crosstown LA team of writers and editor...

On this episode, we’re joined by journalists Tara Haelle and Bara Vaida to talk about the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) and health journalism in the age of Covid-19. They explained what the organization does, why it is invaluable to health care journalists as an informational and networking resource, as well as their role as topic leaders in medical studies and infectious disease,...

On this episode, Chalkbeat publisher-to-be (current editor-in-chief) Bene Cipolla joined Mark Simon to talk about how her group covers educational issues across the country. Bene talked about her organization's purpose -- to have an impact on the improvement of schools for all children, especially those who have lacked access to a quality education. She explained her role, why education journa...

On this episode, Mark Simon talks to Darragh Worland, the vice-president of creative services for the News Literacy Project. The News Literacy Project is a non-partisan non-profit group devoted to making people better news consumers using educational tools. Darragh talked specifically about what the group does, about programs like Checkology that can be used by students, educators, and the public....

We'll call this episode a Personal Salute, as we're joined by KING-5 news anchor Steve Bunin, a former colleague of mine at ESPN. There are many journalistic components to Steve's job and he educates us on each of them. We also discuss the changing role of the news anchor and watching the internet completely change his job over time. Steve was regarded as one of the best question-asker...