Innovation, sustainability are focus of 2018 Walls Leadership Forum

The 2018 Carmage Walls Leadership Forum – to be held Feb. 4-6 in Chapel Hill, N.C. – will feature two media innovators who specialize in new revenue models for sustaining journalism.

Tim Griggs, the former publisher of The Texas Tribune, and Steven King, the former editor of innovations at The Washington Post, will guide a full day of publisher-to-publisher discussion that will center on revenue growth, sustainability, product development, consumer user experience and digital strategy.

Griggs is an independent consultant and adviser to media organizations on revenue and audience growth, product development, consumer user experience and digital strategy. He is also the Innovator in Residence at the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin.

King is assistant professor of Interactive and Multimedia at the School of Media and Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. King combines computer science concepts to develop new ways to present information and to create sustainable innovations and technologies for journalism.

Les High, editor and owner of The News Reporter in Whiteville, N.C., is the program chairman and moderator.

"I have worked with Tim Griggs as part of the ongoing Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative, and I have been impressed at how he is able to elevate the discussions about the future of our business," High said. "Publishers who attend this conference will leave Chapel Hill energized and motivated to meet the challenges they face. Steven King is on the cutting edge of journalism technology but is able to articulate how this translates to smaller media companies."

In addition to programs led by Griggs and King, the 2018 program will include topics for discussion that are chosen by the meeting participants.  

The Carmage Walls Leadership Forum will be held at The Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill. Attendance is reserved exclusively for executives from SNPA newspapers with circulations under 30,000.

Register here

Hotel Rooms: SNPA is still holding a few rooms at The Carolina Inn. To reserve a room, contact Edward VanHorn at (404) 256-0444 or edward@snpa.org.

For more information, contact Edward VanHorn in the SNPA office: (404) 256-0444 or edward@snpa.org.

The Leadership Forum is named in memory of the late Benjamin Carmage Walls whose newspaper career spanned seven decades. Walls primarily owned community newspapers and advocated strong courageous leadership.