The Panelists

For more on the content of the Chicago Media Future Conference, see The Panels page.

PANEL 1 - “How do people consume news and what do they do with it?”

Rich Gordon is associate professor and director of digital innovation at the Medill School of Journalism, where he launched and has overseen the school’s graduate program in interactive publishing.  Prior to joining Northwestern, he spent two decades working for newspapers in Virginia and Florida. From 1995 to 1999, Rich was the first director of new media for the Miami Herald Publishing Co. He oversaw the team that created The Miami Herald Internet Edition, El Nuevo Herald Digital, two South Florida community guides and an array of other Internet content and commerce services.  He also served as newsroom technology coordinator for The Herald.

Rich was hired to establish a graduate major in new media journalism in Medill’s master’s program.  Classes that Rich has directed or co-directed have led directly to the launch of new products including Your Mom (a social network and print publication for teenagers in Davenport, Iowa), GoSkokie (an experiment in hyperlocal citizen journalism) and Beep, a print/Web publication for young adults in suburban Chicago.  A Medill project on “locative journalism,” directed by Rich in the spring of 2008, was recently designated a “notable entry” in the Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism.

In addition to teaching and research into new media journalism, Rich has spoken widely to professional and industry groups. He also organizes and conducts programs on new media publishing strategy for media company executives through Northwestern’s Media Management Center (a joint program of Medill and the Kellogg School) and is the author of “The Definitions and Meanings of Convergence,” a chapter in Digital Journalism: Emerging Media and the Changing Horizons of Journalism (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).   In 2008, the Newspaper Association of America published his “Online Community Cookbook,” a guide for newspapers on successfully creating, nurturing and expanding interpersonal communities on the World Wide Web.

Andrew Huff is editor and publisher of Gapers Block, a Chicago-centric web publication he co-founded in 2003 with designer Naz Hamid. The site has a volunteer staff of around 75, and has received accolades ranging from top news-reporting blog in Chicago Magazine’s recent “Best Chicago Websites” feature to being named one of the best city blogs in Forbes.com’s “Best of the Web.”

Andrew has been blogging since January 2001, and in addition to Gapers Block is now a full-time professional blogger and social media consultant after 10 years in public relations. Blogging clients have included American Express, Starwood Hotels, A&E television and Kenneth Cole.

He lives in West Rogers Park with his partner, Cinnamon Cooper, and two cats.

Amanda Maurer coordinates all social network and news initiatives for the Chicago Tribune, as the paper’s social media producer. During her time at the Tribune, Maurer has trained the newsroom on several social sites including Facebook and Twitter, and has developed best practice guidelines for the newsroom. Along with social media, Maurer also serves as the Chicago Tribune’s SEO liaison.

Daniel X. O’Neil is the People Person at EveryBlock, responsible for working with local governments to uncover new data sets. He also writes poetry books, has a weblog, and maintains a number of other Web sites. More here.

Hilary Sizemore is Secretary and Interactive Chair of Chicago Headline Club and the Interactive Content Manager at Barrington Broadcasting Group LLC, based in Hoffman Estates, IL. She manages the day-to-day online news operations of the company’s 23 television stations that are based in 14 markets throughout the nation, from Columbia, South Carolina to the far reaches of Marquette, MI. Prior to joining Barrington Broadcasting she worked for Quincy Newspapers Inc., as an assignment editor at WKOW in Madison, Wisconsin and at WXOW in La Crosse, Wisconsin as an internet director and assignment editor. Beijing, China was called home for several years while she consulted for the People’s Daily & Market Daily newspapers. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin Madison with a master’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communications.

Moderator: Dan Sinker teaches in the journalism department at Columbia College Chicago where he focuses on entrepreneurial journalism and the mobile web. He was the founding editor of the influential underground culture magazine Punk Planet until its closure in 2007 and is the editor of We Owe You Nothing: Punk Planet, the collected interviews. He was a 2007-08 Knight Fellow at Stanford University and currently blogs about media for the Huffington Post. All his various online activities are collected at danielsinker.com.

PANEL 2 - How do you make money selling the news and who is willing to pay for it?

Eric Easter is the Chief of Digital Strategy for Johnson Publishing where he leads the business and editorial direction of EbonyJet.com and the development of multi-platform digital initiatives across JPC. Prior to joining JPC, he directed communications strategy at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, publisher of washingtonpost.com, Slate and newsweek.com.

A veteran political strategist, Easter served as media consultant for several major campaigns including the presidential bids of Howard Dean, Jesse Jackson and Doug Wilder, as well as the successful Mark Warner campaign for Governor of Virginia.  A frequent speaker on technology and media images, he was the creator and co-editor of he popular book and photo exhibition, Songs of My People, and collaborated with actor Edward James Olmos on the book and exhibition, Americanos.

Brad Flora is an entrepreneur, journalist, and web developer. His writing has been published in Slate Magazine and several Chicago papers. He is the founder of The Windy Citizen, the first local, social news site, which lets Chicagoans rate, share and discuss links to news about their city, its newsmakers and the issues they face. He has appeared on Chicago Public Radio, Chicago Tonight and in the pages of Crain’s Chicago Business and the Chicago Tribune to talk about his plan to expand the local conversation beyond the handful of sources that dominate it. Flora studied at the Medill School of Journalism’s graduate program where he focused on online publishing and finding an audience for news via social media marketing. He lives in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood with a revolving cast of characters subletting via Craigslist.

Tom Lynch is Director of Client Satisfaction for IMP!, and has over 20 years of hands-on direct-marketing experience. Recently a publisher with over 20 titles implemented Tom’s SEO best-practice training & recommendations and in less than 6 months saw a 10% - 40% increase in all their KPI’s. Tom has spoken at numerous national publishing trades shows, and in addition to being a search engine marketing expert, he also co-wrote an episode of a Comedy Central show.

Steve Rhodes spent 20 years as a newspaper and magazine reporter before launching beachwoodreporter.com, a Chicago-centric news and culture review, three years ago. His experience includes small dailies in Florida and Iowa, a reporting residency at the Chicago Tribune, five years as a freelancer for Newsweek, USA Weekend magazine and other clients, and six years as the political and media writer for Chicago magazine. He was the managing editor of The Minnesota Daily at the University of Minnesota, where he earned his bachelor’s in journalism, and designed his own master’s degree in newspaper management at Northwestern University.

Patrick Spain is the co-founder, Chairman & CEO of Newser. He was formerly the CEO of HighBeam Research, a rapidly growing online research company based in Chicago, which he founded in 2002 and sold to Cengage Learning in December 2008. Spain was also the co-founder and long-time chairman and CEO of Hoover’s, Inc., leading it from a small book publisher when he became CEO in 1992 to a profitable, publicly traded company with $31 million in revenue in 2001. He remained on the Board until Hoover’s was sold to D&B in 2003. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Spain worked as a consultant, lawyer, and executive in the telecommunications industry, and as a real estate developer. He has a B.A. in Ancient History from the University of Chicago and a law degree from Boston University. He sits on the boards of several public, private, and not-for-profit organizations.

Moderator: Barbara Iverson
At Columbia College, Barbara teaches, talks and blogs about blogging, citizen journalism and digital technology. She blogs at Currentbuzz.org and is also co-editor and publisher of ChicagoTalks.org. She has a Ph.D. in Public Policy Analysis from the University of Illinois at Chicago and is a specialist in web publishing, interactive multimedia, integrating technology into arts and media courses, and training teachers to use technology in the classroom.