AWC 2006 Annual Professional Conference, September 14-16, 2006 Kansas City, MO
The Heart of It All
Roger Fidler
Roger Fidler
Director of Technology Initiatives, Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute
Adjunct Professor, University of Missouri School of Journalism
"From Print to eMprint"
Roger Fidler currently is the director of technology initiatives for the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia. He is a recognized leader in the digital transformation of publishing who worked in the newspaper business for more than 30 years as a reporter, designer, technologist and executive.
Fidler has been at the forefront of online and digital publishing development since 1979, when he joined the start-up team for Viewtron, Knight Ridder’s pioneering videotex service. He went on to found and direct the Knight Ridder/Tribune Graphics Service, the first computer news graphics service, from 1983-88; PressLink, the newspaper industry’s first global intranet, from 1985-91; and the Knight Ridder Information Design Laboratory, a digital publishing “skunkworks” he headed as corporate director of new media, from 1992 to 1995.
Fidler was a journalism professor and director of the Institute for CyberInformation at Kent State University when he was selected as the Reynolds Institute’s inaugural fellow in 2004. As a fellow, he conducted the first field test of a new digital publishing platform he developed called Electronic Media Print (eMprint). The success of the field test convinced the Missourian to publish eMprint editions twice a week beginning in September 2005. He is now working with other newspapers interested in producing eMprint products.
Fidler is the author of Mediamorphosis: Understanding New Media (Sage, 1997) and numerous articles and book chapters. In 1999, the Freedom Forum Newseum honored Fidler as an electronic news pioneer and one of history’s “Most Intriguing Newspeople” in its book Crusaders, Scoundrels, Journalists (Eric Newton, ed., Times Books/Random House). For his innovative work in digital publishing, he was named as a finalist in 2003 and 2004 for the prestigious World Technology Award in Media and Journalism. He is a frequent speaker at conferences worldwide on topics relating to digital publishing, new media and the future of print media.
He attended the University of Oregon (1962-66) and earned a master’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Kent State University in 1999. In 2004, he was inducted into the University of Oregon School of Journalism’s Hall of Achievement.