List of Speakers & Panelists

Rich Gordon
Professor and Head of Digital Networks, Medill School of Journalism

Rich Gordon is associate professor and director of digital media in education at the Medill School of Journalism, where he launched and has overseen the school’s graduate program in Web publishing.  He has spent most of his career exploring the areas of intersection between journalism and technology.  Prof. Gordon was an early adopter of desktop analytical tools (spreadsheets and databases) to analyze data for journalistic purposes.   At The Miami Herald, he was among the first generation of journalists to lead online publishing efforts at newspapers.  At Medill, he has developed innovative courses through which students have come to understand digital content and communities, and have developed new forms of storytelling that take advantage of the unique capabilities of interactive media.  In addition to teaching and writing about digital journalism, he is director of new communities for the Northwestern Media Management Center, where he is responsible for a new research initiative focusing on the impact of online communities, including social networks, on journalism and publishing.

Prof. Gordon majored in history at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also studied computer programming and served as managing editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian, the university’s independent student newspaper.  He began his professional career at the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, where he served as reporter, bureau chief and assistant state editor.  At the Times-Dispatch and later at The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, he began using computer technology to analyze data such as property assessments, regional demographics and patterns in criminal justice.  In the journalism field, this kind of work has been called “precision journalism” and “computer-assisted reporting.”

At the Post, he served as assistant city editor and projects editor before moving to The Miami Herald.  He served there as weekend editor and newsroom technology coordinator, continuing to develop and oversee precision journalism projects.  During the 1990s, he designed and delivered training in precision journalism tools and techniques on behalf of the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting.

In 1995, the Herald named Prof. Gordon its first new media director.  He hired the team that launched an array of Web sites for The Herald, in English and Spanish.  He ran the Herald’s Web publishing team for four years before coming to Medill as chair of the new media program.  At Medill, Prof. Gordon launched the school’s New Media Publishing Project class and directs the Media Management Project – a unique class in which students serve as consultants for a media company.  Since 2003, the students’ work has led directly to the launch of five new products, including young adult publications/Websites in Milwaukee and suburban Chicago, an innovative Web site for teens in Davenport, Iowa, and a hyperlocal Website in Holland, Mich.

Prof. Gordon is 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. 

Prof. Gordon has served as a consultant, researcher and writer for the organizations including Newspaper Association of America, Pulitzer Newspapers, Paddock Publications and Grainger Corp.  He speaks regularly to professional and industry groups, such as American Business Media, the Online News Association, the U.S. State Department, Reed Business Information, Inland Press Association, the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, the National Investor Relations Institute and the Norwegian Press Institute.   He directs seminars in new media strategy for mid-career media executives in programs run by the Northwestern University Media Management Center and the Inter-American Press Association.