Considered one of the nation’s most distinguished journalists, Oregonian editor Sandra Rowe will discuss “Synergy and the Journalist’s Soul” as the featured speaker of the Ruhl Symposium, an annual event hosted by the School of Journalism and Communication.
Rowe’s lecture, which will be held Wednesday at 4 p.m. in the Adelaide Church Memorial Reading Room of Knight Library, will focus on “the tensions between the changes in commercialization and journalistic values,” she said.
Journalism Associate Dean Alan Stavitsky said the symposium serves as a learning experience for students and faculty.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for an exchange of ideas between media professionals and students,” Stavitsky said. “We’re looking for people who make a difference on the national scene, and Sandy Rowe is clearly doing that.”
Stavitsky emphasized that the symposium is more than just a speech. Rowe will also be available to talk with anyone interested, he said.
As the former president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Rowe directed a project that analyzed the credibility of the nation’s leading information suppliers. She said her intentions are to help editors apply the highest journalistic integrity.
Today, more newspapers are “owned by larger and larger companies that don’t necessarily have a journalism background,” said Rowe, a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board. “Some [of the speech] is my view of the situation. I hope it’s useful to other journalists … and that they do not get so sucked up in the world of business and commerce that they forget the business of news, which is to serve the community.”
Peter Bhatia, Oregonian executive editor, said Rowe’s commitment and thorough leadership makes her one of the finest editors in the country.
“She has a great passion for newspapers remaining a vital part of American life,” Bhatia said.
After coming to The Oregonian in 1993, Rowe reformatted the publication’s newsroom and increased local news coverage. The Portland-based newspaper, a 1999 Pulitzer Prize winner for explanatory reporting, is now considered one of the top 12 in the country, according to the Columbia Journalism Review.
Rowe, a 1970 graduate of East Carolina University, also directed The Virginian-Pilot to a Pulitzer Prize Award in 1985 as executive editor.
Established in 1975, the Ruhl Symposium was created in memory of Robert Ruhl, the Pulitzer Prize-winning editor and publisher of the Medford Mail Tribune, who died in 1967. The annual event is supported by Ruhl’s wife, the late Mabel Ruhl, who created an endowment for the journalism school.
“This is a great experience every year,” Stavitsky said. “There’s always some information we’re getting that ends up in classes.”