ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (June 26, 2018) – The Poynter Institute, a global leader in journalism, today announced that veteran journalist and college journalism director Barbara Allen will assume the position of Poynter.org managing editor effective July 16, 2018.
Allen comes to Poynter from Oklahoma State University, where she is the director of student media. Before that, Allen was a writer and editor at Tulsa World.
“Barbara’s energy and ideas are irrepressible,” said Poynter president Neil Brown. “She shares our desire and ambition that Poynter.org grows in engagement and vibrancy in the coverage of media. We know Barbara will be a key player in that effort and in many other Poynter endeavors.”
Allen spent 12 years at the Tulsa World where she covered police, courts and features. As a features editor and writer, Allen managed an award-winning section aimed at local teenagers.
She took that interest in students to her alma mater, Oklahoma State, and worked as the adviser to the school paper, The O’Colly, and an adjunct professor teaching courses in multimedia reporting, digital communications and public affairs writing. In her nearly 10 years at Oklahoma State, Allen helped the school reimagine its college media department from one that produced a single daily newspaper to eight separate communications properties. The O’Colly, now operating as a digital media company, finished in the top 10 of the Hearst Intercollegiate Writing Competition four years in a row under Allen’s leadership.
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“I love the energy and commitment of journalists, whether I’m working alongside them or teaching them,” Allen said. “This position presents an opportunity to continue analyzing media and assisting journalists, and I hope to bring Poynter to new and relevant audiences.”
In Oklahoma journalism, Allen’s reputation for developing young talent is well-established. She’s worked with David Fallis, deputy investigations editor of the Washington Post, and Jaclyn Cosgrove, a health reporter for the Los Angeles Times, who are among those who give Barbara extensive credit for student success and development.
Hiring Allen signals Poynter’s focus on strengthening its editorial coverage of the journalism and media industry, engaging a broader range of journalists and building community around Poynter’s strengths.
About The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a global leader in journalism education and a strategy center that stands for uncompromising excellence in journalism, media and 21st-century public discourse. Poynter faculty teach seminars and workshops at the Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, and at conferences and organizational sites around the world. Its e-learning division, News University, www.newsu.org, offers the world’s largest online journalism curriculum in 7 languages, with more than 400 interactive courses and 330,000 registered users in more than 200 countries. The Institute’s website, www.poynter.org, produces 24-hour coverage of news about media, ethics, technology, the business of news and the trends that currently define and redefine journalism news reporting. The world’s top journalists and media innovators come to Poynter to learn and teach new generations of reporters, storytellers, media inventors, designers, visual journalists, documentarians and broadcast producers, and to build public awareness about journalism, media, the First Amendment and protected discourse that serves democracy and the public good.
Contact: Tina Dyakon
Director of Advertising and Marketing
The Poynter Institute
tdyakon@poynter.org
727-553-4343
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