ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (January 15, 2025) The Poynter Institute, a global leader in journalism, is proud to announce the hiring of two new faculty members for key roles advancing the sustainability of local news.
Megan Griffith-Greene, most recently the service journalism editor at The Washington Post, is Poynter’s new faculty member leading an effort to educate potential funders of local news on important journalism ethics principles. Funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the five-year program will teach potential philanthropic funders the ethical principles that guide newsrooms and the guardrails that need to exist between those funding journalism and those producing it.
Kate Cox, who has led Poynter’s transformational Leadership Academy for Women in Journalism since 2023 as an adjunct, becomes a full-time faculty member. She’ll continue to lead trainings in management, craft and helping local news leaders transform their newsrooms.
“Both of these talented new faculty members expand on Poynter’s commitment to providing relevant, cutting-edge programs that strengthen the infrastructure to support quality local news organizations and help them find sustainable new business models,” said Sitara Nieves, Poynter’s vice president of teaching and organizational strategy.
Griffith-Greene joined the Post in 2022 as its service journalism editor, where she led the newsroom to find new ways to reach, engage and convert audience. The Post recruited her from the Philadelphia Inquirer, where she created the service journalism desk and also was the innovation editor. She has experience with grant-funded journalism and has worked with philanthropic support for journalism in various stages of her career.
Before that Griffith-Greene worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. for many years in various roles ranging from investigative to broadcast to audience engagement. She has experience in print, digital, broadcast and podcasts, and in traditional reporting and editing roles as well as innovation, audience and product work.
She will develop and teach a program on journalism ethics aimed at foundations, donors and other funders of local news, to help them understand how newsrooms work, and help preserve important guardrails for independent journalism. The national Press Forward effort aims to raise a half-billion dollars in funding for local news, and is bringing to the table some potential donors who haven’t funded journalism in the past.
“This ambitious and important series of in-person and virtual programs will train philanthropists on newsroom ethics, standards and operations and focus on the benefits, complexities and vital importance of funding local journalism,” Nieves said.
Cox, meanwhile, has taught a broad range of custom teaching clients for Poynter, including reporting, editing and digital audience and revenue strategy for organizations like the World Bank, WNYC, Yahoo!, the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the Middle East Broadcasting Network, and Moffitt Cancer Center.
Cox came to Poynter after serving as editor-in-chief of The Counter, where she led and shaped the editorial vision of a nonprofit newsroom that covered the politics, business and culture of food and agriculture. She built and managed an award-winning team, developed the newsroom’s code of ethics, and edited many of The Counter’s most-read investigations.
She will serve as faculty and coach for programs focusing on local newsrooms, including public media stations, with an eye toward long-term sustainability and an audience-first, multi-platform approach to organizational strategies, operations and culture.
Both women are alumni of Poynter’s Leadership Academy for Women in Media, which Cox will continue to direct.
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