WEBCAST: Meet Bill Grueskin, the new Dean of Academic Affairs
On Friday, Aug. 1, 2008, Bill Grueskin, the Columbia Journalism School’s new Dean of Academic Affairs, was interviewed as part of the school’s webcast program. Grueskin, who was, most recently, deputy managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, spoke for an hour with Sree Sreenivasan, the school’s Dean of Student Affairs, about a wide range of topics.
Among them: the role of the WSJ in American journalism; the major changes at the paper since the arrival of Robert Thomson and Rupert Murdoch (including the recent editing layoffs); advice for young journalists; the future of newspapers; how technology has changed the business; how non-techies can learn how to work in the new world; the role of editing in journalism; his career (which included a stint on a paper on a Native American reservation); and more (he also answered questions received via e-mail and chatroom).
You can listen to the hour-long conversation here or via the player below:
See the full archive of Columbia J-school 15+ webcasts with faculty, administrators, alumni and more at http://blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism
These are also available as downloadable MP3 files for your personal collection. If you want to subscribe to these as podcasts on iTunes, go to “Advanced” within iTunes, then select “Subscribe to podcast” and type in http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism/feed and hit OK.
Questions, comments to sree@sree.net
- press release - June 2008 -
COLUMBIA’S GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM NAMES BILL GRUESKIN OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL AS NEW ACADEMIC DEAN
New York, NY (June 4, 2008) — Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism announced that Bill Grueskin, the Deputy Managing Editor for News at The Wall Street Journal, will assume the position of Dean of Academic Affairs beginning on September 2, 2008. Mr. Grueskin will also have the academic title of Professor of Professional Practice.
“Bill has an unmatched record of achievement in both the traditional and digital versions of our profession,” said Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. “He is the ideal person to lead us into our new-media future in a way that is true to our core journalistic values. His experience as a journalist and expertise in online journalism will help the school play a central role in the great reconfiguration of our profession that is upon us.”
Mr. Grueskin will oversee all aspects of academic life at the journalism school, including the M.S., M.A., and PhD degree programs, curriculum, and faculty.
“I have long admired the students and faculty at Columbia’s Journalism School,” said Mr. Grueskin. “I greatly look forward to working with them and Dean Lemann to help make the school even stronger and more relevant amid the many changes in our industry.”
Mr. Grueskin has a distinguished career in newspapers. Most recently, he has served as deputy managing editor/news for The Wall Street Journal, overseeing 14 domestic news bureaus for the Journal, along with the print and online news-editing desks in New York and New Jersey. He came to that job after six years as managing editor of The Wall Street Journal Online, the largest paid subscription news site on the Web. He was named WSJ.com’s editor in June 2001 and oversaw the staff in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, across the street from the Journal’s offices. During his tenure at the Online Journal, the number of subscribers doubled to more than one million. The site also introduced numerous features, including blogs, interactive graphics, podcasts and a robust video platform. Mr. Grueskin joined the Journal in November 1995 as an editor on Page One; he was named deputy Page One editor in January 1998, responsible for such coverage areas as the changing stock market, welfare reform, race and business, and the internet economy.
He began his journalism career in 1975 as a reporter and editor at the Daily American in Rome, Italy. From 1977 to 1979, he was a VISTA volunteer and the founding editor of the weekly Dakota Sun on the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation in North Dakota. After completing graduate school, he worked as a reporter and editor at the Baltimore News American and the Tampa Tribune. In 1985, he moved to the Miami Herald and eventually became city editor, where he oversaw the paper’s local coverage of Hurricane Andrew. The paper’s coverage of the storm won the Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for public service. Mr. Grueskin has a bachelor’s degree in classics from Stanford University and a master’s degree in international economics and U.S. foreign policy from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. He lives with his wife and three daughters in Westchester County, New York.
The school’s previous Dean of Academic Affairs, David Klatell, stepped down in 2007 after serving for nine years, and is now Chair of International Studies at the journalism school.
About the Graduate School of Journalism
For almost a century, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism has been preparing journalists in a program that stresses academic rigor, ethics, journalistic inquiry, and professional practice. Founded by Joseph Pulitzer in 1912, the school offers master of science, master of arts and doctor of philosophy degrees. For more information, visit www.journalism.columbia.edu.
