A Missouri School of Journalism Professor and Alumni Named Reynolds Journalism Fellows
The 2012-13 Class Will Explore New Industry Tools and Strategies
Columbia, Mo. (July 25, 2012) — A Missouri School of Journalism professor and two alumni are among the six leading journalists and industry professionals named to the 2012-13 class of Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Fellows.
The group will pursue new online revenue opportunities, social media techniques and engagement tools and other necessary resources to create sustainable models as news organizations transition to digital services. The Fellows serve for one academic year and will begin their work in the fall.
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From left: Kent Collins, Alisa Cromer, Connie Farrow, Brian Houston, Mitchell McKinney, Matt Sokoloff.
Kent Collins, an associate professor and chair of the radio-television faculty at the School, will focus his Fellows work on community engagement journalism. Collins, BJ ’70, will lead a team of RJI-based researchers and producers in a collaboration with The Nine Network, its flagship station KETC-TV (PBS) and its St. Louis media partners to create of new genre of public affairs journalism. The project will develop new community engagement and social media tools to fostering a more inclusive and more meaningful dialogue of St. Louis-area issues. Collins coaches television journalists and consults television station owners in the U.S. and overseas in addition to his teaching and administrative duties. He has worked in or otherwise been associated with more than 80 television stations from Beijing to Los Angeles to Moscow.
Connie Farrow, BJ ’84, will focus her project on the monetization of digitized newspaper content. Her goal will be to create new revenue for newspapers and content creators while protecting content from unauthorized use. A central database will allow newspaper content to be managed and monetized for the creation of new products and services based on the needs of news publishers. Farrow is the project manager for the American Newspaper Digital Access Corporation. She has written for publications such as The Southeast Missourian, Sedalia (Mo.) Democrat, Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader, USA Today and The Associated Press.
Matt Sokoloff, BJ ’07, will focus his Fellows work on a business model that will provide advertising sales and marketing services to local journalists and bloggers. The project will help existing independent journalists and bloggers work together to cover communities and provide a sustainable business model without losing control of their content. Sokoloff currently is the product manager at Korrelate where he builds and markets products focused on connecting online advertising to offline purchases. Sokoloff has held multiple roles at Tribune Interactive, including product manager for Tribune’s eight newspaper websites including LATimes.com, ChicagoTribune.com and OrlandoSentinel.com.
The other Fellows are Alisa Cromer, who will produce the trade journal of the future, and Mitchell McKinney and Brian Houston, who will co-develop a Twitter analysis of TV news events.
Information about all of the Fellows’ projects is available on the RJI website.
Updated: November 16, 2020