"USE IT OR LOSE IT: WHY LOCAL NEWS MATTERS"
MODERATOR KEVIN COUGHLIN
As technology writer for The Star-Ledger, Kevin Coughlin covered the rise of the World Wide Web, privacy and copyright issues, electronic voting, and the latest and greatest digital gadgetry. He helped launch MorristownGreen.com in late 2007, and took the site with him when he left the paper two years later. Now, as one of the longest-running solo acts in local journalism, Kevin spends his days, nights, weekends and holidays as editor, publisher, correspondent, photographer, videographer, recruiter, parade- and film festival organizer, mentor and salesman. Greater Morristown is bursting with news, and readers crave the coverage once provided by dozens of reporters, when newspapers were flush. He says this is the challenge facing Morristown Green, and his hyperlocal brothers and sisters across New Jersey and beyond. Kevin is a graduate of Rutgers University, where he studied journalism and political science. He also spent a year at M.I.T. as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow, and studied entrepreneurial journalism at the City University of New York. In his spare 20 minutes each week, he plays in a ukulele band.
Joe Amditis, Associate Director, Center for Cooperative Media, School of Communication and Media at Montclair State. He graduated from Rutgers University in 2013 and earned his B.A. with a double-major in political science and criminal justice before going on to earn his M.A. from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in New York City. He is the co-founder and former director of operations of Muckgers, an hyperlocal, student-focused, investigative publication serving the Rutgers-New Brunswick community. Joe is also a seven-year veteran of the New Jersey Army National Guard and deployed to Iraq from 2008- 2009.
Chris Daggett Until last year, was President and CEO of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. In that capacity, he oversaw operations and grantmaking for one of New Jersey’s largest and most respected foundations. He made sustainability of local journalism a priority during his tenure. Immediately prior to joining the Foundation, Mr. Daggett ran as an independent candidate for governor of New Jersey. Served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Thomas Kean, Regional Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, and Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Chris Daggett is currently an independent consultant, providing strategic and operational advice to nonprofit and for-profit organizations in education, community development, local news and information, public policy, philanthropy, and financial services.
Marie DeNoia, Emmy-award winning news reporter and successful writer, producer and news reporter. She has achieved success in her field through all media: writing, TV, radio and the Internet. She has worked in TV news, newspaper journalism and radio. She also piloted MSNBC's first Internet news program. Her TV news experience includes anchoring and producing at MSNBC and reporting and writing at WCBS-TV in New York.
Denise Lang-Grant former editor of The Echoes-Sentinel, Recorder Publishing. Started, staffed and ran four community-based newspapers in Florida. Live and tape television segment producer. Editor, founder and partner of boutique media/PR firm. Member of Producers Guild of America, National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, National Federation of Press Women/NJ Press Women.
Liz Parker Executive Editor and Co-Publisher of New Jersey Hills Media Group, a chain of 15 weekly newspapers and websites covering Morris, Somerset, Hunterdon and Essex counties that she and her brother Steve took over from their parents and doubled in size. Liz was an award-winning reporter for the Asbury Park Press, and was one of the first women to serve as president of the National Newspaper Association and of the New Jersey Press Association. Journalism is in the family blood. Son Alex is now the third-generation editor of one of their weeklies, and a distant relative, James Parker, published the first New Jersey newspaper before the American Revolution
Mike Rispoli Mike directs Free Press’ News Voices project, which connects local communities and the newsrooms that serve them via public engagement, advocacy campaigns and collaborative projects. He also teaches journalism as a part-time lecturer at Rutgers University. Before joining Free Press, Mike worked for the human-rights organizations Privacy International and Access. Mike also served as the technical editor on the 2015 book You: For Sale, a look at protecting user data and privacy online. In a past life, Mike was a journalist for the Newark Star- Ledger and Gannett Newspapers. Mike received his master’s degree in media studies and media management at the New School in New York City and his bachelor’s degree in journalism at Marist College.
Lisa Vickery Veteran editor at The Wall Street Journal, where she has worked for almost four decades. In her latest position she is the deputy editor for the Publishing Desk, where she helps to supervise the dozens of editors who handle breaking-news stories and features for both online and print editions. While ink flows in her veins after so many years of putting out the print paper, she also honed digital skills during three years as part of the WSJ.com homepage team, curating stories pre-dawn to help readers start their day. Her experience spans a range of coverage areas, from a feature rewrite editor for corporate news, to a foreign desk news editor, to health- news editor and day editor on the National News Desk.