The Nieman Fellows at Harvard University have selected Marcela Turati of the Mexican newsmagazine Proceso as this year’s recipient of the Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism. Turati was chosen for her coverage of the drug war and her role in protecting and training members of the media. She is a standard-bearer for the journalists who have risked their lives to document the devastating wave of violence in Mexico. Read more
Editor and author James Geary, a 2012 Nieman Fellow, has been selected as the deputy curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism. In this position he will serve as editor of Nieman Reports, oversee other Nieman print and online publications and manage a range of duties related to the Nieman Fellowship program and the foundation’s journalism outreach efforts. Read more
James R. Whelan, the founding editor and publisher of The Washington Times, the newspaper established in 1982 by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his South Korea-based Unification Church, died on Saturday at his home in Miami. Mr. Whelan was ousted from the newspaper after just two years, saying it had become what its detractors had always said it was, “a Moonie newspaper.” He was a 1967 Nieman Fellow. Read more
John Harwood, chief Washington correspondent for CNBC and a political writer for The New York Times, has been tapped to lead the Nieman Foundation’s Advisory Board. A Nieman Fellow in the class of 1990, he has served on the board since 2006. Read more
C. J. Chivers, senior writer for The New York Times, will deliver the 32nd Joe Alex Morris Jr. Memorial Lecture at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard on Nov. 29, 2012. The annual Morris Lecture honors an American overseas correspondent or commentator on foreign affairs who is invited to Harvard to speak about international reporting. Read more
Sandy Close, executive editor and director of Pacific News Service (PNS), has been selected as winner of the 2012 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence. The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard will present the award in Cambridge, Mass., on Dec. 6, 2012. Read more
The Nieman Foundation is offering an exciting new research and study opportunity at Harvard: a short-term Visiting Fellowship for individuals wishing to work on special projects designed to advance journalism. Those who should consider applying include publishers, programmers, Web designers, media analysts, academics, journalists and others interested in enhancing quality, building new business models or designing programs to improve journalism. Successful applicants will be invited to the Nieman Foundation for a period ranging from a few weeks to several months, depending on the scope of the project. Read more
Sebastian Kleu, a former economics editor for the South African newspaper Die Burger who also served as chairman of the South African Board of Trade and Industry, has died. He was the second South African to be named as a Nieman Fellow and came to Harvard as a member of the class of 1962. Read more
Be the disruptor. That’s the clear message in the cover story for the new Fall issue of Nieman Reports in which renowned Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen, Canadian journalist David Skok, NF ’12, and Harvard Business Review contributor James Allworth apply Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation to the news industry. By examining why and how successful businesses are undermined by start-ups, they tackle the issue so many news executives have tried to better understand: how to find viable revenue streams for journalism and alter outdated operational strategies for continued success. Read more
Three current Nieman Fellows have won journalism awards this fall for work done online and on air. Homicide Watch D.C., co-founded by Nieman Fellow Laura Amico and her husband Chris, took home the Knight Award for Public Service at the Online News Association’s annual conference in San Francisco. The couple received a standing ovation when the award was announced, a hard-earned reward after running the website out of their home for two years and struggling for funding. Accepting the award, Laura said “We mark every death, we remember every victim and we follow every case.” Chris noted, “For everyone who is on their own, building a business from the ground up, this one’s for you.” Read more
