User:Gailj2

/cpauljanensch

Background: Paul Janensch, born November 26, 1938, Carl Paul Janensch, Jr., in Evanston, Ill. He is the former executive editor of The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.,1 and top editor of two other daily newspapers. He is also co-author of a play that has had several stagings.2 Janensch now is professor emeritus of journalism, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, Conn.3  Working to improve media ethics and foster newsroom diversity are signatures of his 40-year career in journalism.4  He is the author of newspaper columns called “Professor News.”5   His radio commentaries and essays continue on commercial and public radio.6  He is the former president of the Associated Press Managing Editors (1989), a board member of the American Society of News Editors and a Pulitzer Prize juror. He delivered three lectures on American journalism in China. Janensch is related to Werner Ernst Janensch, deceased German paleontologist and geologist.

Education:  MSJ Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism 1964, B.A. Georgetown University, 1960.

Journalism Career: Janensch started his career in journalism as a cub police reporter for the City News Bureau (CNB), a cooperative news-gathering agency that served Chicago’s news media for many years. This first job as a reporter led to the many maxims he used over years to school reporters and students. A classic example is, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out, chum” often barked out by CNB Night City Editor Arnold Dornfeld. Maxims Janensch coined at Quinnipiac include "Don't start at the beginning. Start with what's important.” and "When you're finished, you're not finished. Go over what you have written.” Such maxims about journalistic writing and ethics became a trademark, as evident as the red bandana in his pocket. After CNB he wrote radio newscasts for United Press International. Janensch landed his first real newspaper job in 1964 right out of “j“ school, working for Publisher Barry Bingham Sr. and Executive Editor Norman Isaacs at The Courier-Journal, Louisville, KY. As a reporter, he covered civil rights including Martin Luther King’s march to Selma, AL. He then served as Washington correspondent and city editor. Janensch defended and strengthened The Courier Journal’s Ombudsman function after it became the first modern North American news organization to have one in 1967. He instituted an industry-leading consistent correction policy that was emulated eventually by The New York Times and other leading newspapers. He left the Louisville newspapers in 1975- to be managing editor of The Philadelphia Daily News. While there, he had the sad duty of identifying the body in the Philadelphia morgue of one of his staffers, John S. Knight III, killed in a brutal stabbing. He returned to the Louisville newspapers in 1976 to become managing editor of The Louisville Times, a now-defunct afternoon daily. He subsequently became managing editor of The Courier-Journal and then executive editor of The Courier-Journal and Louisville Times. When he held that position, two Louisville staffers won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of refugee camps in Southeast Asia. He helped arrange for the Louisville newspapers to host the 50th anniversary convention of the Associated Press Managing Editors and two years later an annual meeting of the fledgling National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). He filled in for Barry Bingham Jr. as editor and publisher for nine months while Bingham took a sabbatical leave. When Gannett purchased the Louisville newspapers in 1987, Gannett transferred Janensch to its headquarters staff. While there, he established an advanced training program for the Gannett Foundation (now The Freedom Forum) to help Washington-based reporters from regional newspapers develop stories for the papers that employed them. He then was sent to Gannett Suburban Newspapers in White Plains, NY, and served as a vice president and editor and general manager of its Rockland (NY) Journal News. In 1992, he left Gannett to become top editor of the Worcester (MA) Telegram & Gazette, then owned by The San Francisco Chronicle. At all three newspaper companies, he was known for recruiting and promoting women and minority news professionals. After leaving Worcester, he became a consultant to Russian newspapers in 1994-95 under a USAID grant program administered by New York University. Janensch advised on steps to transform former government-owned and subsidized newspapers into profitable businesses and also on the importance of editors forming associations to share best practices and defend against pressures from outside forces. Beginning in 1997, Janensch expanded his work to radio broadcasting. His weekly media commentaries continue to be broadcast by WQUN AM 1220, Quinnipiac University’s commercial radio station, serving Hamden, New Haven and other Connecticut communities. One 2010 commentary took a more light-hearted approach than his normally serious analyses. He focused on a professional Barbie doll released just before Christmas called “News Anchor Barbie.” For 10 years, his commentaries on the news media were aired by the five stations of WNPR Connecticut Public Radio. He wrote a weekly “Professor News” column for The Hartford Courant and the Connecticut Post of Bridgeport. His commentaries for WNPR and the newspapers often were picked up by other platforms, including the Poynter Institute’s James Romenesko and the journalism.org site of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. In 2010 his weekly “Treasure Coast Essays” began on NPR-affiliated station WQCS, serving Florida communities of Vero Beach and Fort Pierce. He also is heard occasionally on Albany, NY public radio FM station WMAC’s ongoing feature called “The Academic Minute.” His occasional guest commentaries are aired by WSHU-FM in Fairfield, Conn. Podcasts of many of Janensch’s commentaries are included in the Notes that follow this article.

Playwright Career: Janensch also is a playwright. He co-wrote “Dear Eva,” a nonfiction play based on World War II letters saved by Eva Lee Brown of Easley, SC, and discovered 50 years later by her daughter, Catherine Ladnier of Greenwich, Conn., who invited Janensch to be her collaborator. “Love in a Time of War,” a spinoff consisting of the love letters in “Dear Eva,” was staged by the Shawnee Playhouse in Pennsylvania and the University of Memphis.

Education Career: In the late 1980s, while still with Gannett, Janensch taught newspaper management as an adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. In 1995, he became associate professor of journalism at Quinnipiac University, then a college, and later was granted tenure. He taught both graduate and undergraduate students during his 14 years there, including a seminar on the news media in other countries. He designed Quinnipiac’s graduate journalism program. While at Quinnipiac, he was gave lectures in on the American news media at the Beijing Broadcasting Institute in China in 1997, 1998, and 2000. He also hosted visiting professors from China in an exchange arrangement between this institute and Quinnipiac. He moderated and served on panels on ethics, political polls and other matters at annual conferences of the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication (AEJMC). He taught a course on the autobiographical writings of Frank and Malachy McCourt to Quinnipiac students studying in County Kerry, Ireland. Janensch retired in June 2009 and was granted professor emeritus status. He continues to teach his seminar on news media systems around the world as an adjunct.

Personal: Janensch married Courier-Journal reporter Gail Evans in 1969. They have three adult children, two grandsons and homes in Connecticut and Florida.

REFERENCES

1 The Courier Journal, Louisville, KY: BARRY BINGHAM JR.: AN APPRECIATION; 'The best boss I ever had', PAUL JANENSCH; Courier - Journal; Apr 5, 2006; pg. A.11

2 Paul Janensch * Journalism Faculty List - Quinnipiac University ... A newpaper reporter and editor for more than 30 years, retired in 2009 as an associate professor of journalism

3 Paul Janensch, contributing editor http://deareva.org/about.html

4 “A legacy of ethics,” Andrew Wolfson; Courier - Journal; Apr 4, 2006; pg. A.1 5 Professor News Columns Hartford Courant - Professor News Columns MEDIA PARTLY AT FAULT FOR POOR TURNOUT Paul Janensch; Hartford Courant; Nov 7, 2002; D.2; DRAWING THE LINE AT ALLOWING VIDEO CAMERAS IN THE JURY ROOM Paul Janensch; Hartford Courant; Jan 9, 2003; D.2; BAD NEWS FOR BUSH ISN'T MEDIA'S FAULT Paul Janensch; Hartford Courant; Nov 3, 2005; D.4; OMBUDSMEN HELP ACCOUNTABILITY OF NEWS OPERATIONS Paul Janensch; Hartford Courant; Aug 18, 2005; D.2; Connecticut Post- Professor News Columns A long fight to secure a free press, Paul Janensch, June 13, 2008, Connecticut Post, Bridgeport, Conn. High cost hurts war reporting, Paul Janensch, June 18, 2008, Connecticut Post, Bridgeport, Conn.

Murdoch's bets don't always pay, Paul Janensch, May 2, 2008, Connecticut Post, Bridgeport, Conn. 6 Radio Commentaries WQUN AM 1220 Weekly commentaries on the media from Quinnipiac journalism professor emeritus and columnist Paul Janensch., WQUN AM 1220 Paul Janensch, December 15,2010, http://www.quinnipiac.edu/media/Memo_Media_Janensch_121510.mp3 WQCS Fort Pierce FL 88.9 - Treasure Coast Essays Lightning Season, 2010.07.05, Paul Janensch, http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wqcs/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1671334/news/Lightning.Season Our billionaires, 2010.05.17, Paul Janensch, http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wqcs/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1650921/news/Our.billionaires America's deadliest highway, 2010.06.21, Paul Janensch, http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wqcs/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1665487/news/America's.deadliest.highway Janensch, Paul (April 20, 2011). "Great newspaper state of Florida snags another Pulitzer for exposing insurance racket". TCPalm (The E.W. Scripps Co.). Retrieved April 20, 2011.