Journalism Week 2003

Submitted by Carla Browning
Phone: (907) 474-7778
03/28/03

Journalism Week 2003 is scheduled for April 17, 18 and 19 at the Anchorage Marriott Hotel.

The final schedule, complete with session times and speakers, should be available in the week before the event and at the Marriott. Meanwhile we wanted to send out a list of some of the highlighted speakers and events.

J-Week begins April 17 with a kick-off reception at the Marriott, sponsored by the Anchorage Daily News.

Sessions start at 8 a.m. at the hotel Friday and run throughout the day. The Anchorage Press will host a rollicking shindig that night at its New World Headquarters on Fifth Avenue. If the party lives up to last year’s debut event, it should be a great time.

Saturday, the final day of J-Week, will again have sessions running all day and awards banquet, beginning at 6 p.m. with a reception. Tickets are $25 and include dinner.

This year’s keynote speaker is Howard Weaver, once a Press Club member and Anchorage Daily News editor, and now vice president of news for the McClatchy Company.

Other presenters for this year’s J-Week include:

Paula Span, a Washington Post staffer since 1988 as the Style section’s New York correspondent. Span is also a staff writer for the Washington Post Magazine and has taught at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1999. Span will lead two sessions on profile writing and one on the long form narrative.

Ira Dreyfuss, a 23-year veteran AP broadcast journalist, whose work also appears in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association and high-profile medical conferences.

Tony Overman, a staff photographer at The Olympian in Washington state since 1997 and director of the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) Region 11. Overman will be joined by Bob Hallinen, Anchorage Daily News photographer and second-place finisher in this year’s NPPA Region 11 Photographer of the Year competition. A television photojournalist from NPPA will also attend and present at J-Week.

Gary Cohn, a Pulitzer prize-winning investigative reporter and the Atwood Professor in the Department of Journalism and Public Communications at the University of Alaska Anchorage. At J-Week, Cohn will discuss his Pultizer-winning series and lead a session on reporting the big story while working in a small newsroom.

Rosanne Pagano, a University of Alaska Anchorage journalism professor, has created an intensive half-day workshop for college journalists from around Alaska.

Karina Jennings, spokeswoman for Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, will review new health information rules and their impacts on reporters.

A lunchtime panel discussion that focuses on access to public information in Alaska and demystifies the FOIA process. The Press Club is also interested in hearing about any problems journalists might be having getting access to public documents.

Other seminars will focus on getting fellowships; freelancing; nature writing; page designing; and on-line research.

For additional information, please contact Katie Pesznecker, vice president, at (907) 257-4589, or President Ta Brant at (907) 257-4321.