CONTACT:
Sue Porter, Sigma Delta Chi Foundation President, 513/977-3030 or sporter@spj.org

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Sue Porter, a Scripps Howard Foundation trustee and editor in the Cincinnati-based headquarters of The E.W. Scripps Company, was elected president of the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation at the recent annual Society of Professional Journalists convention in Fort Worth.

The SDX Foundation is the educational arm of SPJ, the nation’s largest and most broad-based journalism organization.

“These are changing times for journalism,” said Porter. “The Internet is a newsroom that’s open 24/7; print, broadcast and online journalism are converging; and the battle for freedom of information has intensified since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

“SDX is dedicated to helping journalists adapt and excel in this new environment, and to supporting SPJ in its leading role in that evolution.”

Steve Geimann, policy team leader at Bloomberg News, Washington, D.C., was elected vice president; and Frank Gibson, political editor at The Tennessean in Nashville, was elected secretary.

Newly elected SDX Foundation board members include: Ken Bunting, executive editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and Holly Fisher, news editor at the Summerville Journal Scene in North Charleston, S.C. Bunting succeeds Paul Steinle, a professor at Southern Oregon University, who served on the SDX board for 13 years, including five years as SDX president. Fisher joins the SDX board as a representative from the national SPJ board, where she is director of Region 3.

Paul McMasters, First Amendment ombudsman for The Freedom Forum, Washington, D.C., and immediate past president of SDX, remains on the SDX board and its executive committee. Re-elected to three-year terms on the SDX board were Betsy Ashton, executive editor of Great Giving, Inc., New York City; Fred Brown, retired political editor of The Denver Post; Jane Kirtley, Silha professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota; Dori Maynard, president of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, Oakland, Calif.; Porter and Geimann.

Founded in 1961, the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation is dedicated to ensuring that those who carry on the tradition of a free press are prepared for the challenge. The Society of Professional Journalists, which dates back to 1909, promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press.

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