Supervises the Traveling Curriculum and other initiatives for print/online newsrooms

Dr. Deborah Gump, Print/Online Director

E-mail Deborah
Phone:  (202) 662-7159

Deborah Gump’s first newsroom job more than 30 years ago taught her several important lessons. The Rochester (N.Y.) Times-Union was a PM paper, so the first lesson was to get “today” in the lead. The second lesson, from which all other lessons flowed, was that readers noticed – and cared – about  the smallest details.

After reporting and editing jobs at the T-U, Gump worked for the San Jose Mercury News, the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, USA Today and the Marin (Calif.) Independent Journal. While she was news editor of the Marin IJ, the paper was a six-time winner of the California Newspaper Publisher Association’s best-newspaper award and twice won Gannett’s award for the best paper in its circulation category.

In 1999, The Freedom Forum selected Gump for its doctorate program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she focused her research on the ethical implications of the language of journalism. Gump joined the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University as the Knight professor of editing and director of the Knight Ohio Program for Editing and Editing Education, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Among Gump’s initiatives while at Ohio were the  creation of EditTeach.org, which continues to grow as a journalism resource, and programs to bring together professors and professionals.

Gump, who earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Kansas, is a founding member of the American Copy Editors Society and is a recipient of a Knight Fellowship for Copy Editors. Gump is also a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and AEJMC’s outreach committee, which  works to put the results of applicable research into the hands of working professionals.

And while she, too, enjoyed the movie “Forrest Gump,” she is no relation. However, Andy Gump, who invented the flower pot in Sidney Smith’s world, is a kindred spirit.