Re-booting America: News for a New Generation

Speaker: 
Ken Paulson
 
11 Apr 2012
 
7:00 PM
 
South Ballroom, Memorial Union

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Ken Paulson, former editor and senior vice president of USA Today, is the president and CEO of the First Amendment Center. For more than three decades, he has drawn on his background as both a journalist and lawyer to promote First Amendment issues. He has served as the editor or managing editor of newspapers in five different states, host of the Emmy-honored television program "Speaking Freely," and was an early advocate of making newspaper content available online. Paulson is also the current president of the American Society of News Editors. He will discuss how a generational shift in news and information consumption - along with a digitally driven society - will reshape journalism, free expression and democracy. Part of the 10th-Anniversary First Amendment Day Celebration.

For the past twelve years, Ken Paulson has been a regular guest lecturer at the American Press Institute, speaking to more than 5,000 journalists about First Amendment issues. He recently was honored with the API Lifetime Service Award. Paulson is also the founder of 1 for All, an unprecedented national campaign on behalf of the First Amendment, launched on July 1, 2010, with support from more than 1,100 news, arts and religious organizations. In 2007, he was named fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists, "the highest honor SPJ bestows upon a journalist for extraordinary contributions to the profession." He was on the team of journalists who founded [i]USA Today[/i] in 1982 before moving on to manage newsrooms in Westchester County, N.Y., Green Bay, Wis., Bridgewater, N.J. and at Florida Today in Brevard County, Fla. Ken Paulson is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law and the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He also has served as an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University Law School and is a member of both the Illinois and Florida bars.