SoJ Web Report | Dec. 11, 2008
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| Photo by James Brosher |
| AP Tokyo bureau chief Joe Coleman joins the School of Journalism faculty in January as the Roy W. Howard Professional in Residence. |
Coleman has reported from Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East, and most recently has been based in Paris and Tokyo. He will serve as the Roy W. Howard Professional in Residence, which is named for the longtime leader of Scripps Howard, an ardent believer in the importance of international reporting.
Coleman, who has a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University and a bachelor’s in English literature from Vassar College, began his career by traveling to Bogota, Colombia, in 1989 to cover the drug cartel war against the Colombian government.
“I was there two weeks and got a job because there was so much news,” said Coleman, who was hired by United Press International as a stringer-correspondent.
Coleman spent the past four years leading AP’s Tokyo bureau and directing multimedia coverage of the Asian tsunami, global warming and events in North Korea. His editor said Coleman played an important role in the tsunami coverage.
“There was no question that this was the biggest story in the world for about a month, and Joe’s contributions were key to what was one of the AP’s best and most-praised performances on an international story in many years,” said AP’s Asia-Pacific editor Patrick McDowell.
Dean Brad Hamm said Coleman is a good fit for the position named for Howard, one of the leading journalism figures of the 20th century and an early advocate of global reporting.
“For as much as Roy W. Howard loved journalism and global travel, especially in Asia, I believe he would have enjoyed long talks with an outstanding journalist such as Joe Coleman, who has reported from around the world for almost 20 years,” he said.
Scripps Howard owned newspapers from New York City to San Francisco, including many in the Midwest, and the United Press, a worldwide news wire service.
The School of Journalism has close ties to Howard. It oversees the Roy W. Howard Archives; co-sponsors the Roy W. Howard National Collegiate Reporting Competition, which takes top student journalists nationwide to Japan and Korea each year; and includes among its faculty appointments the Roy W. Howard Professorship, held by David Weaver.
After five years as AP’s Tokyo bureau chief, Coleman might have become bureau chief in London or Moscow. But he said he was ready to explore journalism in a different way — through books and in-depth magazine articles — and to work with student journalists.
“No matter what’s happening in the newspaper business, we still need thoughtful, well-prepared reporters,’’ Coleman said. “And I think through working with students and thinking more deeply about these questions, I’ll become a better journalist myself.’’
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