Muller tapped as keynote speaker

May 1, 2012

Award-winning broadcast journalist Judy Muller will be the keynote speaker at the National Newspaper Association’s 126th Annual Convention & Trade Show in Charleston, SC. She will speak at the opening breakfast and flag ceremony Oct. 5, 2012.

Muller is a professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Her latest book, “Emus Loose in Egnar: Big Stories from Small Towns” (July, 2011, Univ. of Nebraska Press) is about weekly newspapers in America. She is also the author of “Now This—Radio, Television and the Real World” (Putnam).

At a time when mainstream news media are hemorrhaging and doomsayers are predicting the death of journalism, take heart: the First Amendment is alive and well in small towns all across America. Muller will share what she discovered when she visited with small-town newspaper editors all across the country, a heartening journey down the blue highways of journalism in her address “Weekly Newspapers: Hyper-Local before Hyper-Local was Cool.”

Muller had been a correspondent for ABC News, reporting for such broadcasts as “World News with Peter Jennings,” “Nightline” and “20/20.” During her 15 years at ABC, she covered such stories as the Rodney King beating trial, the presidential campaigns of Paul Tsongas and Bob Kerrey, the Los Angeles earthquake in 1994, the O.J. Simpson case, and numerous environmental stories throughout the West. She received the Emmy award for coverage of the O.J. Simpson case and an Edward R. Murrow award for coverage of the impeachment of President Clinton.

She has also been a commentator for National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” and host of a topical radio program called “Town Hall Journal.” For the last five years, she has been a contributing correspondent to KCET TV’s “SoCal Connected,” where her reporting has won numerous honors, including a George Foster Peabody award, a Columbia DuPont, an Emmy and two Golden MICs.

There will be a Welcome Reception in the exhibit hall Thursday evening from 5-7:30. The exhibit hall is in the convention center, which is attached to the Embassy Suites in North Charleston. This is your opportunity to see what our exhibiting companies have to offer your newspaper. There will be light reception fare and cocktails. You can enjoy dinner on your own at one of the many fine restaurants Charleston has to offer.

The April issue of Publishers’ Auxiliary has a great article on all there is to do in Charleston. Visit www.charlestoncvb.com/Visitors to request a free visitor’s guide. Watch this page in future issues for more in-depth details on the convention program. Registration information will be available in your June Publishers’ Auxiliary and available online at www.nnaweb.org. Hotel registration is now open by calling 843-747-1882 and requesting the NNA rate of $150 or you can also make reservations at NNA’s website. Make the investment to join us in Charleston, SC. Reserve Oct. 3-7 on your calendar today.