Advisors
The Institute has established relationships with several important individuals in the world of communication. Here is a list of advisors to the Institute.
Andrew Heyward
Andrew Heyward, former president of CBS News, was a visiting fellow to the Institute in November 2007, spending time with students in classes and individual discussions about careers in the media. In addition, Andrew gave a lecture that was open to the community about his life at CBS and the future of media. Heyward also was a guest of WFPL's State of Affairs. To listen to the broadcast archive, please visit State of Affairs online. See Andrew's interview with Beet.tv online about how consumption patters are changing the ecosystem of television news: Heyward is a nationally recognized media expert whose particular area of expertise is the rapidly shifting media landscape.
Andrew is a senior advisor to Marketspace LLC, a subsidiary of Monitor Group that specializes in helping companies use digital technology to drive growth and revenue by enhancing customer interactions. He works with clients to create and strengthen original online content, make more effective use of broadband video, deepen engagement through online communities, and develop new business models for the digital era. Heyward was President, CBS News, from January 1996-November 2005.
During that time, CBS News programming grew significantly in audience, regularly scheduled hours and profitability. Under Heyward’s leadership, CBS News’s tradition of journalistic quality and integrity was recognized with an extraordinary number of broadcast journalism’s most prestigious awards: 57 News and Documentary Emmys, 13 Peabody, 13 Alfred I. DuPont/Columbia University, six Overseas Press Club and 46 RTNDA/Edward R. Murrow Awards. The list of Murrows includes seven for Overall Excellence: four for television—including 2003, 2004 and 2005—and three on the radio side.
Heyward also spearheaded CBS News’s move into new media. Its award-winning website, CBSNews.com, became increasingly competitive and was a leader in providing free, advertiser-supported broadband video. Heyward also was a key force in the establishment of the leading financial news website, CBS MarketWatch, and served on its board of directors from its founding in 1997 to its acquisition by Dow Jones in January 2005.
Before his tenure as President, Heyward was executive producer, CBS Evening News, and Vice President, CBS News (October 1994-January 1996). Heyward was also responsible for developing and launching 48 Hours, the primetime CBS News hour that premiered in January 1988. He has won 12 national Emmy Awards.
Heyward was born in New York. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a B.A. in history and literature.
John F. Lansing – President, Scripps Networks
John F. Lansing is President of Scripps Networks, with responsibilities over the Scripps cable networks -- HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, Fine Living Network, and Great American Country (GAC) – and SN Digital, Scripps Networks’ diversified, multi-platform group including Foodnetwork.com, HGTV.com. In 2008, he assumed the additional title of Executive Vice President of parent company Scripps Networks Interactive Inc.
Lansing joined Scripps Networks in January 2004 as executive vice president, from The E.W. Scripps Company headquarters in Cincinnati, where, since September 2000, he had been senior vice president for television in charge of the Scripps broadcasting division, including 10 television stations. Prior to holding that position, Lansing worked at two Scripps-owned affiliates: WEWS in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was vice president and general manager from 1997 to 2001; and WXYZ in Detroit, where he worked as vice president and station manager beginning in 1995.
Lansing began his career as a news photographer at age 17 at WPSD-TV in Paducah, KY. He then became chief news photographer, and later managing editor, at WAVE-TV in Louisville, KY., from 1980 to 1986. He joined WWMT-TV Grand Rapids, Michigan as news director until 1988, when he returned to his hometown of Minneapolis to become the assistant news director at KARE-TV. Two years later, he was named news director at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis where he served for four years before being promoted to news director at WBBM-TV in Chicago in 1994.
In 2006, The Delaney Report named Lansing the Cable Broadcasting Executive of the Year for his part in keeping Scripps’ lifestyle networks “fresh, informative and lively.” In 1994, Lansing led the WCCO I-Team to being awarded the Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University Award for Investigative Reporting. He also is the recipient of an American Women in Radio and Television National Commendation for editorial writing in 1993. In 1990 he led the KARE Special Projects team to a National Headliner Award for community service; and in 1989 was named Gannett Television News Executive of the Year.
Prior to moving to Scripps Networks, Lansing served as a visiting faculty member at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a school for professional journalists, in St. Petersburg, Florida, and previously served on the board of the Scripps Foundation. Lansing currently serves on the board of the Knoxville Area Urban League, and is serving as chair of the 2009 United Way Campaign of Greater Knoxville. Lansing graduated Cum Laude from Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky with a degree in Communications Studies. Lansing and his wife Jean have three sons, twins Alex and Jackson, Nicholas and a daughter, Jennifer.
Vikki Porter
Vikki Porter is director of the Knight Digital Media Center and supervises Professional Development Programs for New Media journalists at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication in Los Angeles. She was the founding director of the Western Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. During her 30-year journalism career, Porter worked in five Western states, started a newspaper, served as top editor for three community newspapers, and shared a 1986 Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal as part of a five-person team while city editor of The Denver Post. Most recently, she was executive editor of The Desert Sun newspaper in Palm Springs, CA. Porter was a Knight Professional-in-Residence at the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas in 1987-88 and a Knight Journalism Fellow in Studies of Law at Yale Law School in 1988-89, where she earned her Masters in Studies of Law. She is active in the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Associated Press Managing Editors, and has been invited to participate in conferences hosted by the Pew Foundation for Public Journalism, the Freedom Forum, Harwood and Associates and the American Press Institute.
Gene Policinski
Gene Policinski, executive director of the Freedom Forum’s First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, was a visiting fellow in February 2008, when he spent a day with communication students. Policinski talked a about First Amendment issues. For more information about the Freedom Forum, please visit the First Amendment Center website.
Gene Policinski, vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center, is a veteran journalist whose career has included work in newspapers, radio, television and online operations.
Policinski oversees operations and programs of the center, which has offices in Nashville, at Vanderbilt University; and in Washington, D.C. He also is co-author of the weekly syndicated newspaper column, "Inside the First Amendment," and executive producer/host of the touring multimedia stage production, "Freedom Sings."
Policinski came to the Freedom Forum in 1996 from USA TODAY, where he was a founding editor and held various news executive positions. He began his journalism career in 1969 in Indiana, where he worked as a newspaper reporter and later as state bureau chief for Gannett News Service. In 1980, he became a correspondent in the GNS Washington bureau, reporting on Congress, politics and other issues.
In 1982, he was named Washington editor of USA TODAY during its development period, and he held that post when it launched on Sept. 15. In 1983, he was named a Page One editor. In 1985, he was named deputy managing editor/sports and later was named managing editor/sports. He is the founding editor of USA TODAY Baseball Weekly (now Sports Weekly). From 1991 through 1993, he was the on-air host of three news, sports and information programs on USA TODAY Sky Radio. He also helped develop USA TODAY’s first online ventures.
In April 1996, he joined the Freedom Forum as a journalist in residence, directing a special Olympic Games program, and in September was named special assistant to the chairman and chief executive officer. Since joining the foundation, he has held a number of executive roles, and was Washington editor for the First Amendment Center’s Web site in 1999. Also, he was host and writer for of “Newseum Radio,” a one-hour program that aired on National Public Radio Worldwide from 1997 to 2001. And he was executive producer of “Speaking Freely," a weekly interview program, which aired nationwide on public television from 2001 to 2005.
Policinski was named deputy director of the First Amendment Center in June 2000. He became executive director in 2004 and vice president in 2007.
A lecturer and consultant on journalism issues ranging from newsroom ethics to new media, Policinski is a member of the board of trustees of the Newspaper Association of America Foundation and the board of governors of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Mid-South chapter. He is an adjunct professor at Winthrop University in South Carolina and a member of the journalism alumni board at Ball State University in Indiana.
Policinski was born in South Bend, Ind. He is a graduate of Ball State and attended the Nashville School of Law. He is married to Kathleen B. Powell, an educator. They have two sons.
John du Pre Gauntt
John du Pre Gauntt focuses on the intersection of technology, economics and media. Previously, John was senior mobile analyst for eMarketer, a New York City-based market research firm for the advertising and marketing industries. His analysis of emerging trends in media and marketing has been featured in The Economist, New York Times and Washington Post among others. He has conducted private research for clients such as Google, Nokia, Groupe Publicis and NTT DoCoMo. His published work includes the World Economic Forum, the Economist Intelligence Unit and various academic and industry presentations. John current research concentrates on the impact of cloud computing on media and marketing through his blog site Media Dojo (www.media-dojo.com).
This year, John was a Knight Foundation fellow at the University of Maryland at College Park where he specialized in digital privacy issues in distributed computing environments. John earned a Master of Science with Distinction in Information Systems from The London School of Economics.