Keynote Speaker: Paul Steiger
Paul Steiger is the editor-in-chief, president and chief executive of ProPublica, a newly formed non-profit newsroom devoted to producing significant investigative journalism in the public interest. Mr. Steiger was managing editor of The Wall Street Journal from 1991 to 2007.
Mr. Steiger is also the chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based nonprofit organization founded in 1981 to promote press freedom by working for the rights of journalists world-wide. He is a trustee of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, based in Miami, which supports transformative programs in areas including journalism and community development.
Mr. Steiger began his journalism career in 1966 as a reporter in the San Francisco bureau of The Wall Street Journal. In 1968, he moved to the Los Angeles Times as a staff writer and, in 1971, he transferred to that paper’s Washington, D.C., bureau as an economics correspondent. He returned to Los Angeles in 1978 to serve as the Times’ business editor. In 1983, Mr. Steiger rejoined the Journal as an assistant managing editor in New York and became deputy managing editor in 1985. He was appointed managing editor in 1991 and served in that role until May 2007. Under his leadership, The Wall Street Journal’s reporters and editors won 16 Pulitzer Prizes. He served as editor-at-large of the Journal through year end 2007, when he assumed his present position.
In 2005, Mr. Steiger was honored with the “Decade of Excellence” award from the World Leadership Forum in London. Also in 2005, the University of Missouri School of Journalism awarded him a Missouri Honor Medal for distinguished service in journalism. In 2002, Mr. Steiger was selected as the first recipient of the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ Leadership Award, honoring his more than a decade of strong leadership at The Wall Street Journal. The John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA honored him with the 2002 Gerald Loeb Award for lifetime achievement. Also in 2002, he was awarded the Columbia Journalism Award, given to honor a “singular journalistic performance in the public interest,” and the highest honor awarded by the Columbia University School of Journalism. He was named a 2001-2002 Poynter Fellow by Yale University. The National Press Foundation awarded him the 2001 George Beveridge Editor of the Year Award for qualities that produce excellence in media. He was a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board from 1998 to 2007, serving as chairman in his final year. Mr. Steiger personally won three Gerald Loeb Awards and two John Hancock awards for his economics and business coverage. He is co-author of the book, “The ’70s Crash and How to Survive It,” published in 1970.
About ProPublica
ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that will produce investigative journalism in the public interest. Our work will focus exclusively on truly important stories, stories with “moral force.” We will do this by producing journalism that shines a light on exploitation of the weak by the strong and on the failures of those with power to vindicate the trust placed in them.
Investigative journalism is at risk. Many news organizations have increasingly come to see it as a luxury. Today’s investigative reporters lack resources: Time and budget constraints are curbing the ability of journalists not specifically designated “investigative” to do this kind of reporting in addition to their regular beats. This is therefore a moment when new models are necessary to carry forward some of the great work of journalism in the public interest that is such an integral part of self-government, and thus an important bulwark of our democracy.
