Supervises the Traveling Curriculum and other initiatives for print/online newsrooms

Deborah Gump, Print/Online Director

Deborah Gump’s first newsroom job more than 30 years ago taught her several important lessons. The Rochester (N.Y.) Times-Union was a PM paper, so the first lesson was to get “today” in the lead. The second lesson, from which all other lessons flowed, was that readers noticed – and cared – about even the smallest details.

After reporting and editing jobs at the T-U, Gump worked for the San Jose Mercury News, the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, USA Today and the Marin (Calif.) Independent Journal. While she was news editor of the Marin IJ, the paper was a six-time winner of the California Newspaper Publisher Association’s best-newspaper award and twice won Gannett’s award for the best paper in its circulation category.

In 1999, The Freedom Forum selected Gump for its doctorate program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she focused her research on the ethical implications of the language of journalism. Gump joined the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University as the Knight professor of editing and director of the Knight Ohio Program for Editing and Editing Education, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Among Gump’s initiatives while at Ohio were special programs that brought together professors and professionals and the creation of EditTeach.org, which continues to grow as a resource for journalism students, professors and professionals.

Gump, who earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Kansas, also works with the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund internship program and the Chips Quinn Scholars program, as well as other organizations that work to foster new journalists and train veterans. She is a recipient of a Knight Fellowship for Copy Editors, a founding member of the American Copy Editors Society and a member the Society of Professional Journalists and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. As part of her work with AEJMC’s outreach committee, Gump works to put the results of applicable research into the hands of working professionals, as well as help find ways for the classroom and the newsroom to strengthen each other.

And while she, too, enjoyed the movie “Forrest Gump,” she is no relation. However, Andy Gump, who invented the flower pot in Sidney Smith’s world, is a kindred spirit.