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Alums propel 29th annual Marquez Journalism Conference

Twenty-one DP alumni returned to campus on September 6 for the 29th annual Steven A. Marquez Journalism Conference. Reflecting changes to the industry, the event took on a digital-related theme.

Rick Dunham ’78 delayed a trip to Beijing, where he now teaches journalism, to lead a kick-off session on best practices for conduct in the social-media age. A longtime reporter and columnist for BusinessWeek and the Houston Chronicle, he was a White House Correspondent and president of the National Press Club before trading in daily deadlines for lectures and term papers as a journalism educator last year. He is in his second year as a professor of multimedia journalism and co-director of the Global Business Journalism program at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Dunham also presented a session on what it’s like to be an American Journalist in China, and some of the contrasts between journalism in China and the United States.

Andrew Kirtzman ’82, David Schwartz ’93, Shirley Zilberstein ’00 and Ben Geldon ’01 presented a session on the state of television news as well   session on bulking up the DP’s video presence on theDP.com.

At the request of the current editors, the afternoon sessions were open to the larger university community, so the DP could use the event as a recruitment tool and further raise its presence on campus. Among the popular panels, political reporters Beth Reinhard ’90, Rebecca Kaplan ’10 and Emily Schultheis ’11 led an informative and entertaining discussion of what Aaron Sorkin gets wrong in “The Newsroom.”

While the Marquez Conference traditionally has been an editorial-focused event, the business staff got involved this time as well. David Gurian-Peck ’10 led a session on marketing strategies for the DP, relying on his expertise as a strategy manager with The New York Times.

Breakout sessions allowed departments to focus on their specific areas. The panelists included:

• Design: Chris George ’05

• Digital: Emily Babay ’10

• News: Paul LaMonica ’95, Yochi Dreazen ’99, Binya Appelbaum ’01, Julie Steinberg ’09

• Photography: Jacques-Jean Tiziou ’02

• Sports: Rich Hofmann ’80, Jesse Spector ’02

• 34th Street: Mike Madden ’98, Dan McQuade ’04

Adam Rubin ’95 organized the event.