Kerwin Speight

Kerwin Speight is a member of the Poynter faculty who coaches and consults with newsrooms across the country on leadership and digital growth. Speight is an award-winning television journalist and consultant with more than 20 years of journalism, teaching, and leadership experience. Speight’s strong track record of producing local news and programming includes—most recently—leading editorial strategy at the digital-first outlet REVOLT Black News. Before REVOLT, Speight was managing director of Spectrum News in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he led a team of journalists to grow audience engagement for both broadcast and digital to the highest level in station history. 

Speight started his career as a producer at local stations including WCNC-TV in Charlotte, KHOU-TV in Houston, and WBAL-TV in Baltimore. He quickly rose to executive producer roles, including at WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, WRAL-TV in Raleigh and WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. He’s won several awards for his work, including an Emmy for newscast coverage of a deadly mass shooting at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., and an Edward R. Murrow Award for producing a documentary focused on mass shootings called “Soft Targets, Hard Choices.”