How women leaders are transforming newspapers

Mi-Ai Parrish, PJ Browning and Julia Wallace
Mi-Ai Parrish, PJ Browning and Julia Wallace
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Is there really a “female style” of leadership? What perspectives do women bring to an industry led for more than a century almost entirely by men? What does the participation of women executives augur for the future of the newspaper industry?

Mi-Ai Parrish, Sue Clark-Johnson Professor in Media Innovation and Leadership at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Media Communication at Arizona State University, will moderate a panel discussion at the Mega-Conference that looks at the questions that arise with this phenomenon.

Panelists include:

  • PJ Browning, president, Newspaper Division, Evening Post Publishing, and publisher, The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C.
  • Julia Wallace, Frank Russell Chair in the Business of Journalism, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University.

Wallace is an award-winning news industry executive with deep experience in investigative journalism, industry leadership, digital transformation and change leadership. She was the first female editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and was named Editor & Publisher Editor of the Year in 2004. She also served as managing editor of USA Today, the Chicago Sun-Times and The Arizona Republic and led Cox Media Group Ohio.

Wallace and Senior Associate Dean Kristin Gilger of the Cronkite School are the authors of a new book, "There's No Crying in Newsrooms: What Women Have Learned About What it Takes to Lead."  The authors interviewed nearly 100 women about their experiences in newsrooms over the past 40 years and explore the challenges still facing women in media organizations and other workplaces.

Wallace also heads a training program for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting; the Mayo Clinic-Cronkite Medical Journalism Fellowship and oversees the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Desk at Cronkite News.

In October 2019, Browning was honored with Editor & Publisher magazine’s Publisher of the Year Award. She was recognized for the way she has pushed her newsroom to become digital leaders, her participation in Poynter’s Table Stakes program and the Google News Initiative Subscriptions Lab. In presenting the award, E&P also noted the paper's acquisition of Steeplechase of Charleston (an annual horse racing event) and the Pulitzer Prize in Public Service won by The Post and Courier for its series on domestic violence “Till Death Do Us Part” in 2015.

She serves on the board of trustees of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation and on the board of directors of the Local Media Association.

women in journalism, Mi-Ai Parrish, PJ Browning, Julia Wallace