Acclaimed digital media innovator Steve Yelvington at 10th Forum on 7th October

There’s lots of talk about the urgent need to update the journalistic paradigm to suit the realities of the Networked Age. Cries for the practice of journalism to be conceived as a conversation, not a lecture has arguably become something of a mantra in progressive media circles.

One person who hasn’t just talked about it, but showed how it could work in practice - and perhaps even profit - is Steve Yelvington, now Vice President of Content and Strategy at Morris Digital Works, the consulting arm of US media giant Morris Communications.

Yelvington will join the international panel of digital media experts at the 10th Journalism Leaders Forum on 7th October. The theme: “Hard Lessons: What are the tough times teaching media decision-makers about the way forward?”

Other confirmed panellists include Juan Señor, UK director of the Innovation International Media Consulting Group, and Kevin Anderson, blogs editor for The Guardian. François Nel, the founding director of the Journalism Leaders Programme at UCLan, will chair the debate.

A longtime newspaper journalist, Steve Yelvington was founding editor of Star Tribune Online (later rebranded startribune.com) in Minneapolis in 1994 and built it into one of the top-ranked newspaper sites in the world.

As executive editor and network content director for Cox Interactive Media, he supervised a nationwide network of city sites.

At Morris Communications, he led site design and development operations that yielded more Digital Edge and EPpy awards than those of any other newspaper company. Amongst the most-discussed projects has been turning the small town newspaper Bluffton Today into a pioneering multimedia newspaper focused on and actively participated in by its community.

Editor and Publisher magazine presented him with the 2001 EPpy Award for Individual Achievement and the Newspaper Association of America presented him with the 2007 Online Innovator Award.

He now concentrates on longterm vision, strategy, and innovation for Morris Digital Works. He now concentrates on longterm vision, strategy, and innovation for Morris Digital Works. And, of course, he blogs, too.

To attend this free programme at 6pm on Tuesday, 7th October in Greenbank Lecture Theatre in Preston - as well as the networking reception from 5pm - please RSVP to leaders[at]ukjournalism[do]ac[dot]uk.

If you can't be there in person, there are other ways to join the discussion. You can post your questions and comments on this site, or you can view the live Webcast by logging in as a guest at: http://breeze01.uclan.ac.uk/journalismleadersforum/. Online participants will be able to post questions to panelists in a text chat room.


For more information about this and other activities of the University of Central Lancashire's Journalism Leaders Programme, which partners with media companies to develop leadership talent and strategic solutions for the Networked Age, contact François Nel, by email (FPNel@uclan . ac . uk) or Skype (francoisnel).