ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Jan. 10, 2024) — The Poynter Institute, a global leader in journalism, is pleased to announce the 25 senior executives selected for the 2024 Media Transformation Challenge (MTC) Program: A Poynter Institute Executive Fellowship.
Since 2007, 375 senior media executives have realized critical performance results, built lifelong career skills and relationships, and made major contributions to industry transformation through this yearlong program (known industry-wide as the original Sulzberger Program).
Fellows learn and apply MTC’s well-known tools of performance-driven change, have yearlong access to a full slate of diverse executive coaches — Amanda Barrett, Lauren Gustus, Stephane Mayoux, Fran Scarlett and Danyelle White — and will connect with a world-class set of former Fellows who share common language and program experiences.
The 2024 Fellows represent some of the biggest media brands in the world, including Yahoo! News, The Associated Press, ABC and Telemundo, as well as cutting-edge nonprofit and collaborative news organizations developing audience growth and business models.
“MTC is entering a transformational year in 2024, with generous grant support from the Knight Foundation, the Google News Initiative and our first private donor,” said executive director Charlie Baum. “We’re grateful for a diverse, creative incoming class, whose challenges are very much part of the revitalization of the news ecosystem. It’s an exciting time in the journalism world, and our Fellows are at the heart of it.”
Fellows kicked off the MTC program during an in-person session at Poynter.
Throughout the fellowship, participants will identify and pursue their most significant business performance challenges with help from MTC’s trademark tools, concepts, coaches, peer group and alumni network. In years past, the program has focused on helping newer enterprises produce quality journalism to deliver audience impact, build capacity and gain financial strength; innovating new business models, service offerings and digital ventures; delivering more powerful audience-focused experiences and outcomes through integrating efforts across internal operations; and strengthening relationships and building audiences across fault lines of race and class.
Several Fellows and the overall program are supported through the generosity of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Google News Initiative, and the family of Jeff Chambers and Andrea Okamura.
The 2024 Fellows are:
Fisnik Abrashi, director of global customer engagement, the Associated Press
Saeed Ahmed, vice president of news for digital platforms, the Associated Press
Arturo Carmona, president, Latino Media Collaborative/Calo News Group
Jos Duncan Asé, executive producer and publisher, Love Now Media
Kristen Go, editor in chief, CalMatters
Kimberly Griffin, publisher and chief revenue officer, Mississippi Free Press
Andale Gross, managing editor, the Kansas City Star
Benjamin Hallman, executive director, The Examination
Karen Hawkins, story editor, The 19th
Amanda Hickman, chief operating officer, MuckRock Foundation
Lauren Johnston, executive editor, Yahoo News U.S.
Michael Kreisel, vice president of newsgathering, ABC News
Kensey Lamb, global director of platforms and distribution, the Associated Press
Karen Mahabir, director of standards and talent development, the Associated Press
Leigh Munsil, editor in chief, San Antonio Report
Mirta Ojito, senior director of news standards, Telemundo Network
Alberto Orso, senior broadcast producer/head of 8AM GMA, Good Morning America
Emma Patti Harris, head of newsroom audience and digital experience, The Baltimore Banner
Anna Pogarcic, director of content and communications, EdNC
Damaso Reyes, investigative editor, The New York Amsterdam News
Erica Schopmeyer, director of operations and finance, Outlier Media
Angilee Shah, CEO and editor-in-chief, Charlottesville Tomorrow
Maryse Sulimma, chief operating officer, The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
Darya Ushakova, senior vice president of consumer marketing, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Hannes Vollmuth, senior editor for digital strategy and innovation, Sueddeutsche Zeitung
About the Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute is a global nonprofit working to address society’s most pressing issues by teaching journalists and journalism, covering the media and the complexities facing the industry, convening and community building, improving the capacity and sustainability of news organizations and fostering trust and reliability of information. The Institute is a gold standard in journalistic excellence and dedicated to the preservation and advancement of press freedom in democracies worldwide. Through Poynter, journalists, newsrooms, businesses, big tech corporations and citizens convene to find solutions that promote trust and transparency in news and stoke meaningful public discourse. The world’s top journalists and emerging media leaders rely on the Institute to learn new skills, adopt best practices, better serve audiences, scale operations and improve the quality of the universally shared information ecosystem.
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