GRADUATE PROFILES

By Logan Kirkland

Fred Anklam, the senior night editor of USA Today, grew up in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and went to the United States Military Academy to study engineering, but he quickly realized it was a field he did not want to pursue.

Anklam said he knew about the small journalism department at Ole Miss. It had a great reputation, plus it was one of the fun schools in the South.

Anklam entered the university as a transfer student in July 1974 and immediately started working at The Daily Mississippian.

“The first thing I did was go to the DM,” Anklam said.

The DM seemed to be constantly covering the Watergate hearings.

“It was a time when interest turned to journalism,” Anklam said.

He found it fascinating to be able to talk to important people.

For instance, he wrote a story on coed dormitories and opposite sex visitation policies at each of the SEC schools, and was able to talk to the chancellor and the college board and got to see many different institutions.

“I was treated like an equal and grew up fast,” Anklam said.

In school Anklam always challenged himself by taking classes with teachers who were well known on campus.

“It was a lot of fun challenging myself,” Anklam said.

Anklam recalled that in Jere Hoar’s feature writing class, students were required to write one story a week and to submit them for publication.

“He told us, ‘Why are you studying journalism if you don’t want to be published?’” Anklam said.

Another class that was challenging, Anklam said, was Will Norton’s advanced reporting class.

“We were assigned a beat on campus and had to write two stories a week,” he said.

Norton, now dean of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media, said Anklam “wrote one great story after another.”

Anklam said the expectations of both Hoar and Norton in their classes really prepared him for the journalistic world.

“Oh, Dr. Hoar’s class,” Anklam said. “He’s a wonderful man. He didn’t mean to terrify us, but he did.”

Anklam said many top journalists graduated from the program at Ole Miss and benefited because of the classes at the university.

“We all did very well in the real world because of the curriculum,” Anklam said.

The one person in the department who had the most energy was Norton, Anklam said.

“If anyone left me prepared for the newsroom, Dr. Norton was the one,” he said.

Anklam said they both kept him competitive and working hard.

“I still have a great relationship with both of them,” he said.

Anklam became much more serious during his junior year. He realized that The Daily Mississippian was a real service to the students and each story he covered was a learning experience.

On one assignment, he interviewed Dean Frank Moak. After he left the interview, he realized he had not asked several vital questions. He went back, asked the questions and started writing the story. Then he realized that he still had more questions that needed to be answered.

“It was very embarrassing for me,” Anklam said. “It was a good learning experience.”

Shortly after graduating from Ole Miss, Anklam worked at The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, where he and Nancy Weaver were the lead reporters on a team that won the Pulitzer Prize.

“I thought I did not have a chance in a small paper in Mississippi,” Anklam said. “I can’t explain to you how exciting it was.

Anklam said he and Weaver covered in depth the problems in public education in Mississippi. They spent more than half a year traveling through all parts of the state in order to gather information.

“We were shining a light on what was really going on,” Anklam said. “It never entered my mind that our reporting would win a Pulitzer Prize.”

Anklam said Weaver was masterful at pulling the information out of sources and organizing it effectively.

“We went out and did basic reporting,” Anklam said.

Charles Overby, executive editor of The Clarion-Ledger at that time, said Anklam has the intangibles. He gets along with people, is hard working and understands the big picture.

“Fred has this great ability to be a nice guy, but a tough reporter,” Overby said. “He knows the right questions to ask.”

Overby, now the chairman of the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics, entered that package of education articles in the category of public service that helped achieve public reform.

Overby said he remembers the excitement

Photo by Jud McCrehin

when they found out about the Pulitzer.

“I’ll never forget it,” Overby said. “I’ll treasure that time for the rest of my life.”

“We were jumping on the desks in the newsroom,” Anklam said.

Anklam said the Pulitzer award “was a nice validation of what we are doing at Ole Miss.”

Norton said he happened to be in Jackson when he heard the news of the Pulitzer, but he could not stay because he had to be back on campus. Looking back, he wishes he had stayed.

“A couple of days later, I got a call from Fred,” Norton said. “This is how he is such a good guy. He had won the Pulitzer, but he took time and called and thanked me for a class that he said had helped him win the Pulitzer.”

Norton said that tells you just how nice and selfless he is.

“He uses good things in his life to make things good in other people’s lives,” Norton said.

“But it’s not just that he’s a good guy,” he said. “He’s an exceptional journalist.”

Overby said Anklam is an example for all Ole Miss students.“Fred’s success shows that anybody that goes to Ole Miss and works hard can be successful on a national scale,” he said.

“Of all the students we’ve had in journalism, he’s one I feel very close to because of the way he just took hold but didn’t let success go to his head,” Norton said.

“He used his reporting ability for the betterment of his community. He’s the reason they won the Pulitzer,” he said.

Norton said Anklam raised the respect of the school.

“It’s persistence that really makes someone good at something,” Norton said. “I think you see that persistence in Fred.”

“You can be a great journalist and never win an award,” Anklam said. “Learn to push yourself.

“Be aware of the impact your work can have on people. If you can communicate effectively, you can do anything.”

Anklam said it is important to learn a little about everything because the more you can do yourself, the more you can do to promote your work.

“There was no USA Today when I was in college. That wasn’t an option,” Anklam said. “You don’t know what is going to be out there.”

Anklam said he loves working with USA Today because of the communication he has with people on the national level.

“You sometimes forget how many people will be affected,” Anklam said. “If you apply yourself seriously to journalism, you will find it a most rewarding career or profession.”

It’s the field he wanted to pursue.

The author is a Meek School senior, journalism major with a minor in Spanish. He is from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

By Bridget Quinn W hen one mentions Ole Miss alumni, football players usually are the first to come to mind — Archie and Eli Manning and Michael Oher, among others. Few think of Renie Anderson (’97), senior vice president, sponsorship and partnership management for the National Football League. She is a major player. “We look at partnership like any relationship, like a marriage or when you are dating someone,” she said. “We ask, ‘What do we have in common?’ … We look at what we are together.” The goal is to make sure the NFL can differentiate a sponsor from its competitors in the marketplace and from the other partners in the NFL family. “Our sponsors have very different reasons why they are with us,” I walked through every open door professionally and took every opportunity I could. When a door was open, I asked myself, ‘What am I willing to do to the best of my ability?’ “ Anderson was born and raised in Morganfield, Kentucky, and Anderson said, “and if we do not understand those differences, we was graduated with a journalism degree with an emphasis in public cannot help them reach and exceed those goals. We don’t want them relations. She has worked for the NFL eight years. to just maintain specific goals, we want them to exceed every year.” Joanna Hunter, director of corporate communications for the Each day is different for Anderson, but all are busy. Some days are NFL, said all the organizations with which Anderson has completed spent entirely in meetings. Others are spent working with the CEO deals are blue chip. and his staff. Of the 26 sponsors she manages, Bridgestone was her first. She “My typical day is like taking a drink out of a fire hose,” she said. has signed 13 more new sponsors and 12 renewals. Hunter said, “Renie always has been the first to raise her hand to “It is my role to make sure all the sponsors have an opportunity to take the lead or take on more, setting a great example. leverage the brand of the NFL in order to reach their goals,” Ander“She proves that hard work can pay off. She is a model for many son said. “Each sponsor’s goals are really different and really specific. aspiring executives showing that doing your job well with integrity “We also want to make sure we are reaching our fans and growcan advance your career.” ing.” At Ole Miss, Anderson was president of Pi Beta Phi sorority, Hunter said, “Companies want to be associated with the NFL involved in student body, wrote for The Daily Mississippian, had a because Anderson convinces them they should be. She develops and public relations internship, was part of the Chancellor’s leadership articulates creative and innovative ways for brands to leverage their class and was involved in Reformed University Fellowship. relationship with the NFL that is a win for both the sponsor and the She was passionate about sports, going to all the home football NFL.” and basketball games, but she really never thought about working in Anderson said the NFL ultimately looks at a company and figures sports. out if it would be a grand fit, and if the potential sponsor has the “I thought working in sports was like Bob Costas or Jerry Mcsame values and goals. Guire,” she said.

After graduation she moved to California, hoping to be a great novelist some day.

“I walked through every open door professionally and took every opportunity I could,” she said. “When a door was open, I asked myself, ‘What am I willing to do to the best of my ability?’”

Anderson could not find a writing job, so she went to a temp agency where she was a receptionist answering phones. She knew someone who knew David Baker, the commissioner of the Arena Football League. She needed a job and he needed an assistant, so she worked for Baker.

“My first day of work I was 22 years old,” Anderson said.

“He said, ‘I need you to balance my checkbook, pick up my dry cleaning and call NFL owners to see if they want to buy arena football teams.’

“I looked at him like, ‘Hmm what should I do first today?’

“He said ‘Fake it till you make it, kid.’ And I did.”

Anderson worked there nine years, learning about the business of sports: making T-shirts, selling tickets and video games, and learning how to sell teams.

“Renie is focused, a very driven tornado in a compact body,” Baker said. “She has a passion to succeed, and she has a great influence and understanding of people.

“While she was working for me she grew as an individual. … She grew personally and in understanding of the business.”

Anderson found her best skill set is sponsorship sales and activation, so she went to the National Football League.

“At the NFL, we are never satisfied with where we are,” she said. “The key for the NFL is we don’t have to be the first to do something, but when we do something, we have to make sure we are the best.”

Hunter said Anderson “exemplifies the best of the NFL. She leads by example -- when times are uncertain, she keeps her focus and the focus of her team on work and moving us forward.”

“She is the ultimate team player,” Hunter said. “She celebrates her team and gives credit to those doing the work.”

The NFL has 185 million fans and is seen as America’s favorite sport.

When Anderson attended Ole Miss, she spent a lot of time in Farley Hall and credits the university for helping with her current success.

“I had a dream in journalism, and now I sell sponsorships,” she said. “There is absolutely no connection there, but the way I was taught how to tell a story, in a clear concise way has helped me, because in sales you are telling a story.

“I love to tell stories, and I do that every day. I tell stories as I sell the businesses I work for with our clients.”

For Anderson, football is not only in the fall, but year-round.

“There really is no off season for the NFL,” she said. “When the season is over, the day after the Super Bowl we have 32 teams that believe they can win the Super Bowl the next season. We are not just September through February. We are 365 days, 52 weeks a year.”

In addition to Anderson’s career, family is important. She is a wife and mother of two daughters, living in Darien, Connecticut. She spends a lot of time at ballet lessons and swim practices. During her free time, she loves to read, write and watch movies, but most of all she takes naps — every chance she gets.

“She is proud of where she comes from — growing up on a farm in Kentucky and especially the years she spent at Ole Miss — and

Photo courtesy of the NFL

appreciative of those who have had a positive influence on her and her career,” Hunter said.

Her advice to college students working to achieve her level of success in the sports industry is to find something they are interested in and be good at it.

“Lots of people are fans of sports,” she said, “but you need to find what you are passionate for. At the NFL, we are a business, we run like a business, and it takes a village to run.

“You don’t have to have a sports marketing brain to work in sports. You can take your skill set and transition it to the world of sports. Be an expert, and experiences will arise.”

Baker says Anderson is an excellent role model for women and men.

“It is so much fun to watch her grow,” Baker said. “She is going to make a difference. She will continue to grow as a wife, mother and professional.

“There is going to be a lot more ahead. This is just the beginning.”

The author is a 2014 Meek School graduate from Alpharetta, Georgia.

By Jonece Dunigan

Tom Bearden, a retired PBS NewsHour Denver-based correspondent, has reported from 11 countries and visited 68.

He has hometowns around the world: Fort Belvoir, Virginia.; Captieux, France; and Okinawa, Japan, just to name a few.

Lt. Col. Norman C. Bearden, his father, fought in three wars in the Army. Although being raised on military bases around the world meant friends came and went, Bearden believes the lifestyle has its perks.

Every memory is like a souvenir of the places he has been, and the multicultural childhood along with his military family experiences have provided a background for a successful journalism career.

“It gives you the ability to talk to anybody about anything [when covering stories concerning the military],” Bearden said. “I know what their rank means. I know who they are. I know what their jobs were about. I have seen people who have no experience [in the military] and it’s sometimes quite awkward for them because they don’t know the lifestyle.”

Bearden’s first choice for professional study was architecture. He fell in love with the precision and hands-on aspects of the occupation after taking a few classes in it during high school in New Jersey.

He was persuaded to do something in a more journalistic direction once he realized that architecture requires a knack for math. After transferring to Fort Campbell High School in Kentucky, an English teacher encouraged him to write editorials for the high school newspaper during his senior year.

“It seemed like a natural thing,” Bearden said, “because I learned how to type because my mom signed me up for typing classes. It was the best thing she could’ve done for me.”

Bearden enrolled at the University of Mississippi in the fall of 1965 after he learned that he qualified as an in-state student because his father’s home of record was in Port Gibson. He did not know what Hotty Toddy meant, recognize the school colors or know that it had a tradition to shave the heads of freshmen.

He considered his six-year stint at the university to be a relief from frequent moves.

“It was a welcomed change because it was the longest I had ever been [in one place], besides the standard tour of duty, which is three years,” Bearden said. Bearden kept his hands busy during his college career. He was the student manager of the campus radio station, WCBH, for three years. He traveled to Chicago and shook hands with Walter Cronkite as he received two journalism awards from Sigma Delta Chi. He worked part time as a disc jockey at WSUH in Oxford, learning the art of “rip-and-read” news.

A disc jockey had to rip the hourly news summary off the AP or UPI wire and read it directly on air without editing it, because there wasn’t time to do anything else. Bearden said it was all part of a juggling job.

“One had little choice if, like me, you worked the morning shift and were the only person there playing the records, running the commercials, and reading a five-minute newscast at the top of every hour.” During graduate school, he shot 16-millimeter film while reporting for Ed Meek’s Public Information Office. He spent the summers of 1966,’67,’69 and ’70 as a radio and TV announcer and a television audio tech in the NBC affiliate WLBT in Jackson, Mississippi.

He did his first five-minute television newscast at WLBT, broadcasting live on televisions across Mississippi.

“It was both exciting and terrifying,” Bearden said, “and just like at the radio stations, I was the only one working that newscast. It was Saturday afternoon, and the news department didn’t have anybody on duty. They only worked evening newscasts on weekends.”

Bearden earned his Bachelor of Science in journalism in 1969 and a Master of Arts in radio-TV and an ROTC commission as an Army second lieutenant in 1971.

He almost graduated with a full-time job at WLBT, but the person he was replacing decided to stay. Suddenly thrown into the job market, Bearden frantically sent resumes to every television station in the region.

In May 1971, he landed a job as a reporter and anchor at WLBT’S competitor WJTV in Jackson.

His career took a brief detour when he fulfilled his active duty obligation to the military by attending the Signal Officer Basic Course in Fort Gordon, Georgia. He returned to WJTV in January 1972 and worked until that summer, when he entered the Memphis market and took a job at WHBQ-TV as a reporter. He anchored the five and six o’clock news and worked as an assignment editor.

“It has a thankless job,” Bearden said. “When things go right, he or she doesn’t get any credit. When things go wrong, he or she gets all the blame.”

He met and married Ruth Ann during that time, and they have two daughters, Katie and Emily.

Bearden ventured into the Rockies in the spring of 1978 as an anchor and reporter for KMGH-TV Denver, where he won a regional Emmy for investigative reporting and awards from Sigma Delta Chi, the Associat ed Press and the Denver Press Club.

Bearden joined the “MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour,” now renamed “The PBS NewsHour,” in 1985.

“He’s a terrific journalist and a credit to the people at Ole Miss who taught him how

to be one,” said Linda Winslow, executive producer of the show. “He’s had a piece of every major news story that has occurred … in the past twenty-plus years.”

While at KMGH Bearden reported from the front lines of the conflict between the Sandinistas and the Contras in Nicaragua in 1983. At “NewsHour” Bearden covered the Mexico City earthquake in 1985, followed by natural disasters, such as hurricanes Andrew and Katrina.

Although the workdays wore on for sometimes 22 hours, six days at a time, Bearden said, “It was exciting. It never felt like a job to me because nothing was routine.”

When he was not reporting on national stories, he learned the art of storytelling while doing long-form or mini-documentary reports about public policy. Brian Gill, a cameraman who worked with Bearden for 16 years, said Bearden had a natural talent for making topics such as commercial aviation and science into stories people would hold close to their hearts.

“He is able to get to the crux of what’s important in anything,” Gill said. “He can present things in a way that makes sense so the viewers benefit.” Bearden was intrigued by the idea of the “seven basic plots,” an idea created by British novelist Christopher Booker in 1994, which included literary plots such as “Overcoming the Monster” and “Rags to Riches” stories like Cinderella. Bearden adopted Booker’s model to journalism—that there are also promise wouldn’t be able to get access.” The best advice I can give somebody trying to break into broadcasting is to get a job, any job, while you’re still in college. Even an unpaid job. Volunteer, if you have to. “ seven basic news stories. Those might After 27 years with “PBS NewsHour,” include the infamous “if it bleeds, it leads” Bearden retired during the summer of 2012 category—local traffic accidents, house fires, as a decorated veteran of the journalism inand murders. Another basic story topic dustry. Some of his documentaries with PBS would be natural disasters like hurricanes, won him awards from the National Press tornadoes, and floods. Then there are social Club, two Cine Golden Eagles and a naissues pieces likes gay rights, and public politional Emmy nomination. Another prize he cy stories, with immigration as one example. received from the industry was the boatload

During a story about climate change, he of frequent flyer miles he now uses to take reported how the United States Coast Guard his wife, children and three grandchildren to collaborated with scientists on the U.S.C.G exotic places they would not be able to see Healey in the Arctic Ocean north of Barrow, otherwise. Alaska. It is part of the code Bearden works He still has the anchorman’s voice and by: there may be only seven basic stories, but continues shooting photos and videos. He there are many different ways to tell them. believes that a future journalist’s best prepa

“That’s Journalism 101,” Bearden said. ration for the work world is to start gaining “You find a way to make an audience want experience early. to watch that piece. But you have to be careful that you don’t distort the facts in making it a good story.” “The best advice I can give somebody trying to break into broadcasting,” Bearden said, “is to get a job, any job, while you’re

Bearden is a good storyteller. During still in college. Even an unpaid job. Volunone of his 13 trips to cover the BP oil spill, teer, if you have to. he bumped into what he categorized as a “disturbing series of events.” The camerman was arrested because they took pictures of a refinery, which local authorities considered a crime. Policemen blocked public roads “You need to have some call letters on your resumé to even be considered, and you have to be pretty good at it, and that takes practice. allegedly on orders of BP. Despite the obsta“The campus radio station at Ole Miss cles, Bearden was able to negotiate with the helped me practice my craft, often just authorities to get the job done. through repetition.”

“He went directly to who’s in charge,” Gill “One needs actual experience to get a said. “He felt that we should have access and decent job.” established a communication to get access. A The author, a 2014 Meek School graduate, is a different person who is not willing to combeat reporter for the Decatur (Ala.) Daily.

By Mickey Brazeal

Rockwell Corp. had a shiny new helicopter. This was 1953, when a helicopter was an impressive thing to have. Their ad guy, Bill Marsteller, figured it was worth some press coverage. So he reached out to some public relations professionals. Several of them.

Harold Burson was the one who got there first. He had it all figured out. Harold always gets there first. He always has it all figured out. Impressed, Marsteller talked him into a merger, and Burson-Marsteller was born.

The agencies stayed together until the giant Y&R bought them both. But their paths quickly diverged. Marsteller Advertising grew gradually into a middle-sized agency, focused on the less lucrative field of business-to-business advertising. Burson-Marsteller exploded into an international giant, quickly becoming the biggest in the world. It became so dominant that Y&R was willing to purchase the Marsteller agency in order to be able to buy Burson-Marsteller.

Harold Burson was born in Memphis in 1921. He got into Ole Miss at age 15 and quickly became a force on the student newspaper. He got a reporter’s job in Memphis and then went to WWII as a combat engineer. But he never stopped writing. His coverage of the Nuremberg trials is still seen as their definitive history. When he came back from the army, he started a PR firm in New York.

The cliché about Harold Burson is that he is “the single most influential public relations practitioner in this century.” Which led IBM’s communications senior vice president to ask, “Which century?” It’s a pale descriptor for a genuinely revolutionary entrepreneur.

PR was not so prestigious a profession when he entered the scene. It was focused on building awareness of your company or your product. On the company side, it was a middle-management function. Burson saw it more strategically. What are the values you want to be known for? What do people think of you now? How do we get from here to there? Suddenly it wasn’t so much about your publicity as about your identity — to your customers, your community, your employees, your regulators. In company after company, Burson became a close advisor to the CEO, helping senior management to manage that firm’s reputation the way they managed operations and revenues and human resources. Today everybody thinks that way. Burson showed them how.

He saw things in public relations that few others could see. One was the centrality of corporate behavior. There are two parts to a reputation, he would preach: how you communicate and how you behave as a corporation. The more important one is how you behave. You don’t earn a reputation by meeting the minimum requirements. Or by ignoring everything except “building shareholder value.” You have to be a lot better than you absolutely have to be.

Another was the idea that relationships are worth the sacrifices it takes to keep them. When public relations people meet, they say, “So who are you working for now?” But Burson had hundreds of employees who stuck with him for 20 years or more. His ability to forge lasting personal relationships created a culture and built a mighty organization.

Burson-Marsteller’s offices became schools for the emerging doctrines of strategy-driven public relations, turning young people with marketing skills or journalism skills into finished public relations professionals. Some of them moved up, and some of them moved on, and for decades now, an extraordinary share of public relations agencies and the public affairs departments of large institutions are led by Burson-Marsteller alumni.

Detractors (there are always detractors) say that Burson-Marsteller accepted some unlikeable clients — an embattled African government, an eco-villain and the like. Two things to understand: First, Burson did not always accept the conventional wisdom about who’s

a villain and who is not. And second, his service to many of those clients seems to have been getting the people at the top to under- stand what the world requires of its citizens — what you have to change to earn the reputation you need. Somehow, this message cuts through more when it’s coming from Harold Burson, and not just the United Nations.

You’d have to be a fool to try to re-tell a Harold Burson anecdote. He hones a story until it gleams like a blade, and if you change a single word, it’s not as good. But there’s one that Ole Miss alums need to know, and that’s the story of Burson and the confederate flags.

Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat summoned Burson to say, we have to do something about the Confederate flags that Rebel fans wave during football games. The whole country saw them on TV. It was offensive to African-Americans, and damaging to the university’s reputation. It cost the university students, prestigious faculty and alliances with other universities.

Now, it’s not all of us and it’s not about everything, but there are people in Mississippi who are kind of attached to their traditions. Not easily talked out of them. Burson’s task would not be simple.

Burson thought about it for a long time. What matters, he decid- ed, is not how you say it, but who this message comes from. So he went to the football coach. Coach was quick to tell him those flags had cost him many a promising recruit. They made it tough to be competitive at the highest level.

“It’s you who’s got to tell people to stop,” Burson told him. And the coach took maybe a few deep breaths. But he stepped up and did it. And the fans took care of the rest.

Public relations agencies, says Burson, now compete with law firms, accounting firms, management consultants, HR consultants, and advertising agencies as advisors to the senior management of large companies and institutions. All of them help to build share- holder value. But, of all those advisors, the public relations agency is the only one whose primary focus is the public interest.

What he doesn’t say is who made that happen.

More than anyone else in the world, Burson made that happen.

If any alumnus can make a university proud, it is Harold Burson.

The author is professor and leader of the Integrated Marketing Communications program at Roosevelt University in Chicago. He worked for 28 years as an advertising agency creative — the last 10 as executive creative director of a large Chicago agency. Before joining the Roosevelt faculty, he taught at Northwestern University and at the Stuart Graduate School of Business at Illinois Institute of Technology.

Photo by Ed Meek

By Kayleigh Skinner

Considered by many as the voice of college football, Ron Franklin is one of Ole Miss’ most successful graduates. Through hard work and preparation, Franklin went from a sports director of several small stations to one of the faces of ESPN College Football Primetime.

The Mississippi native attended University High School and chose UM because of the connections he made with the university during high school.

These connections included a close friendship with former chancellor Robert Khayat and Warner Alford, former athletic director and later director of alumni affairs.

“I think he has been a great representative of Ole Miss,” Khayat said. “He has a wonderful voice which enabled him to become the best sports announcer in America.”

Franklin intended to join Alford on the football team, but a series of concussions caused a blood clot and cut his dream short. However, he was able to channel his passion for sports into broadcasting.

Franklin began working at WSUH in Oxford as a disc jockey. He worked the morning shift at the station, attending classes during the day, and returning at night to create the station’s commercials.

With the encouragement of a helpful mentor, Franklin decided to apply to small television stations to secure a job after graduation.

“[My mentor said] what you need to do since you have no television experience is send out some resumés to some really small markets and see if you don’t get a bite,” Franklin said.

He did get a bite. In1965 he was hired to work at a local news station in Roswell, New Mexico. For two years he stayed at the station to learn the ins and outs of the business, and that work paid off.

In 1967 he was named sports director at a station in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“He had a great talent, he had a great voice, and he took that talent and multiplied it,” Alford said.

After four years, he was noticed by larger stations in Houston, Texas, and accepted another sports director position.

“You don’t go into a small market to get mired and stay there forever,” Franklin said, quoting advice from his mentor. “You go for a couple of years and see how far you grow.”

His work at these smaller stations served as a great learning experience, which provided him with the skills to take his career to the next level. While in Houston, he became the play-by-play voice of the Houston Oilers and the University of Texas Longhorns.

It was during his time with the Longhorns that opportunity truly presented itself to Franklin. He received a job offer from ESPN, but initially turned it down because of a commitment he made to DeLoss Dodds, former athletic director at Texas.

“They couldn’t believe that I would turn down a job offer like that,” Franklin said. “I just told them I made a promise that I would stay X number of years, and I was still a year short. I told them if you’re still interested, would you please call me back next year?”

One year later, ESPN called him back, and this time he accepted the offer.

“They put me on a job of something that they were trying to create, and that was Primetime Saturday Night Football,” he said. “For me being on prime time on Saturday night was like dying and going to heaven. We did the top game every Saturday night that ran on ESPN.”

Franklin stayed with the network for almost 24 years, from 1987 until his retirement in 2011.

“He’s a star in the broadcast world,” Alford said. “He’s as good as it gets.”

For the majority of his stay, he was one of the most prominent announcers in college sports.

“It just let me know that a kid from a small, rural town in Mississippi could be given an opportunity like this,” he said. “Every week I’d pinch myself and say ‘this is really happening.’”

“An individual just needs to be willing to work hard to learn what it takes,” Franklin said.

“It doesn’t matter how little experience you have,” he said. “There are ways to gain experience, and it’s just how much ‘want to’ you have.”

Franklin also suggests summer internships for students who want to gain experience.

“A lot of the same principles still hold true,” he said, “but it is far different today than when I came through – some stations just make you a gopher.

“We never did that in Houston [with] our interns. We brought them in and made them put together 12 packages for their resumes, and all our kids got jobs.”

Franklin credits much of his success to the mentors who gave him advice while at the university, including his close friendship with former chancellor Khayat.

Although Franklin has lived in several places, he said he wouldn’t change his Southern upbringing for anything.

“I’m not sure I would have prospered any more if I had gone to another school,” he said. The author, a 2014 Meek School graduate, works for The Hechinger Report.

By Taylor Delandro

Anne Glover, digital content editor at the Tampa Bay Times, truly loves what she does.

One might think she had black ink in her blood because she always wanted to be a writer, and she was exposed to the newspaper field at an early age.

Her parents were big newspaper readers, and their example instilled a love of reading in her. Glover’s aunt was a sports writer at the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, and her uncle also wrote for the paper and owned a newspaper in Indianola, Mississippi.

“Just being exposed to it and just knowing my aunt was one of those people that made ‘the magic’ come out, that just really kind of sealed the deal,” Glover said. “I was hooked, you get paid to read and to write.”

Glover would later find out that her mother was a features editor for a newspaper in Columbus, Mississippi.

“I knew my mother worked at the local paper in Columbus, but she never told me she was a features editor,” Glover said. “I didn’t realize that she had once been the features editor until I went to the features department to work, she goes ‘Oh, I used to be the features editor there.’”

Glover had a connection to the University of Mississippi, growing up in Columbus. Glover’s mother’s family were Ole Miss fans and friends with former Ole Miss football player and coach, Billy Brewer. But it was attending band camp on campus that made Glover decide to attend the university.

“I’m like ‘Oh, I’m going to Ole Miss.’ I loved the campus and everything about it,” she said. “I knew they had a good daily newspaper, and I knew I wanted to go into journalism.”,

Glover became a staff member at The Daily Mississippian during her sophomore year and worked for the paper through her junior year, when she became managing editor.

“I had a great time, especially working for the paper. I felt we really got daily experience and professional experience,” she said. “We put that paper out everyday and had to think what’s the news, what do we have on our plate, and budget.”

Kathy Ferguson, communications strategist at FedEx Express, said, “Anne Glover worked as my news editor while I served as editor of The Daily Mississippian in the early 1980s. I considered her my right hand, giving her many responsibilities.

“She never let me down. She was highly motivated, dedicated, loyal and responsible. I consider her one of the best copy editors in the business.”

After graduating, Glover set off to Florida and started her career as a part-time copy editor at what was then the St. Petersburg Times.

Although she hasn’t had a big career in reporting, Glover has been making moves from an editor’s desk at the Tampa Bay Times.

She was an assistant managing editor of the copy desks for 12 years, but she has also been part of launching many new publications and projects for the Times. Two of her more successful ones were tbt*, a free tabloid aimed at young adults, and the paper’s Things to Do website.

Her LinkedIn site notes that she “specializes in creativity, teamwork, optimism and an overriding desire to bring exceptional leadership to whatever assignment” she is given.

When Glover writes, she prefers short bursts and being really precise and creative. She said she enjoys giving readers short, fun, interesting or unique stories that she can create as an editor.

Photo courtesy of Tampa Bay Times

“I’ve got a little bit of marketer in me, I like to sell stories, not just write them,” Glover said.

“One thing that sticks with me all the time,” she said. “Our [Daily Mississippian] publisher, Lee White, gave us an idea for a great story, but we left it out of the paper, and he taped it to the door the next morning and wrote on the bottom of it ‘good story.’

“So, when people get excited about a good story, you have to say, ‘Okay, we’ve got to get that online or in the paper. We’ve got to find a way to make it happen.’

“I think about that all the time when I’m trying to do something and I know it’s a good story and I know it’s going to get a lot of viewership. I’ll just make it happen. It has to happen.”

During her career, she’s made it a point to keep learning and stretching, and for nine years she was a visiting faculty member at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

“I have taught several copy editing seminars, as well as select classes over the years involving ethics in the media,” she said. “I also assisted in a groundbreaking Eyetrac study conducted by members of the faculty there.”

Her article for Poynter, “The Seven Deadly Copy Editing Sins,” tries to help copy editors in their efforts to be perfect.

Journalism students should “be flexible and do anything that they need to do to gather the news or present the news.”

It’s not print, it’s not broadcast, it’s not photojournalism, it’s everything, Glover said.

“Learn the basics of journalism, learn how to write even if you’re a photographer. If you’re an editor, learn how to report. If you’re a public relations person, learn what the newspaper needs.”

“You’ve got to do all of these things in today’s environment,” she said. “You don’t have the luxury of sort of being a specialist.” The author is a Meek School journalism major.

“By Madisen Theobald W hen young Connie Green Freightman, valedictorian of her class, told her high school guidance counselor she wanted to be a newspaper reporter, the counselor told Freightman that newspaper journalism jobs did not pay well. She said Freightman could do better. of networking opportunities with experts in the field. Freightman decided to double major in journalism and English. She worked for The Daily Mississippian and landed a few summer internships. While attending Ole Miss she found respect in the journalism department because it demanded quality and perseverance, emphasized the importance of students keeping up-to-date on the news and encouraged Connie is the definition of a team player. She had a great knowledge of the Metro area and was more than willing to share that expertise with other colleagues. She was very unselfish in helping other reporters and in helping new reporters and editors get to know the metro Atlanta area. — ANGELA TUCK However, her guidance counselor’s words only enstudents to seek internships for job experience. couraged her to be hardworking and successful in the After her sophomore year at Ole Miss, her first infield of journalism. ternship was with the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson. Then “The field of journalism was more competitive [due to the Watergate story] and generally offered low pay,” Freightman said. “I was undaunted. My guidance she was an intern with the Washington Post. About a month before Freightman’s graduation in May 1982, the Atlanta Constitution offered her a job as a reporter. counselor’s advisory just made me realize that I had to “There was not a better feeling than leaving college focus not just on good grades in college, but I also had with a degree and a job in my field,” Freightman said. to find ways to position myself for a journalism career “I was happy, but mostly grateful and relieved. after graduation.” “The journalism program at Ole Miss prepared me Freightman (’82) is now a freelance journalist in to get off to a good start,” she said, and she still appreAtlanta, Georgia. She has received countless opportuciates the support and high expectations the program nities from her education. had for its students. She was born in Lexington, Mississippi, and graduAbout a month after graduation, she was writing for ated from high school in 1978. After high school, she the Atlanta Constitution, the city of Atlanta’s morning traveled a short distance to attend Ole Miss for the newspaper. Later on that year, the newspaper merged best journalism program in the state. Once she became with the Atlanta Journal, the city’s evening newspaper. an Ole Miss Rebel, she became involved in campus Freightman was ecstatic to be among the staff memactivities, applied for internships and took advantage bers kept on after the merger, writing wrote on topics

such as city government, education, courts and social services. “Connie is the definition of a team player,” said Angela Tuck, her former boss. “She had a great knowledge of the Metro area and was more than willing to share that expertise with other colleagues. She was very unselfish in helping other reporters and in helping new reporters and editors get to know the metro Atlanta area.” After eight years as a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Freightman took a job as a copy editor in the features department. This was a big change for her since she came from a hard news background, but she wanted to make room for potential opportunities.

Freightman’s first editing job was assistant features editor for travel. While she appreciated the offer, she was uneasy at first.

“Do they really want me to edit the travel section?” she thought. “I’m a farm girl from Mississippi, and I haven’t done much traveling.”

Later she was asked to take on the home & garden and style sections.

“Home & garden? I was more familiar with agriculture than horticulture,” Freightman said.

“And I was still a hard news journalist at heart. But what is life without challenges that take you out of your comfort zone? So I decided to push aside those insecurities and go for it!”

She oversaw two fashion writers for the style section and assigned reporters to do stories filed from Milan, Paris and New York City at the fall and spring fashion shows.

As home & garden editor, she supervised a staff that consisted of a columnist, a home writer and a garden writer. She also assigned

stories to freelance writers and contract columnists.

In addition to regular sections, her team produced four special sections each year. They crafted a fall and spring home improvement guide and a fall and spring home design section that focused on home decorating trends for each season.

Freightman worked with freelancers and staff writers to produce the annual gift guide at the beginning of the holiday shopping season.

“The highlight was working to help writers improve their craft and to reach their personal career goals,” Freightman said.

“I was proud to see many of them move into editing jobs after I left my full-time editing job at the newspaper for a part-time position that allowed me to spend more time with my family.”

Freightman is married to John Freightman, also an Ole Miss alumnus, and they have three children.

After the birth of her third child in 2000, Freightman decided to work from home as a writer and a copy editor.

In 2003, she received an offer from a former Atlanta Journal-Constitution colleague who was a senior manager in the corporate communications department at Delta Air Lines.

The offer was intriguing.

Since childhood, Freightman had been fascinated with the aviation industry and had considered becoming a pilot.

Freightman decided to take the job, and five years later she was offered a full-time job as a writer for Delta. She was given the opportunity to work with the company’s Intranet team to write and post news to the company’s division websites.

She is a freelancer, doing research for two book projects: one about growing up in Mississippi and another on Atlanta after the Civil Rights movement.

“Right now, I prefer the flexibility because I have time to work on my book projects,” Freightman said. “I may even head out to a local airport and take flying lessons.”

Connie Green Freightman is an Ole Miss success story, and today she might well tell her high school teacher that she could not have done better in any field. The author is a junior, journalism major from Normal, Illinois.

By Mary Lynn Kotz

As a member of the Department of Journalism’s Advisory Board during the 1980s, part of my role was to mentor recent graduates and assist in job placement.

When I was informed that Connie Green had won a prestigious internship with the Washington Post, I invited her to stay in our District of Columbia apartment until she got her bearings. (Sondra Raspberry was looking for a babysitter. Connie moved in with the Raspberry family, where she gained another mentor — Bill, a Pulitzer Prize winner, a Mississippi-born columnist for the Washington Post).

Having never been to the nation’s capital, Connie was very grateful for her opportunity.

I was touched by her story; she grew up on a farm near Lexington. Connie was able to attend the new Head Start program nearby. She entered public school with a head start, and a very good head — which brought her to our front door in June 1980.

The next morning my husband, a Pulitzer Prize reporter and now a freelance author, drove her to the Washington Post building, where she was given a brief orientation and assignment.

They handed her keys to a company car, she told me, and sent her to cover the Arlington, Virginia courthouse. This pre-Internet, pre-GPS, would have been daunting even to me, a veteran journalist who had lived in the area for 20 years. Connie did not blink. She drove across the Potomac, scanned the court’s dockets, nosed out a story and came back with a byline in the next morning’s newspaper.

Her cool composure and intelligent initiative carried her far in her journalism career — eventually as Home & Garden editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Later, after marriage and becoming a mother, she took a night job in the news department as a copy editor, so she could be with her small children in the day time.

There, she made a surprising decision for an upwardly mobile journalist. “The time pressure was taking its toll on my children — and on me,” she told me when I visited her in Atlanta.

“I needed to be at home and guide them to become the kind of mature, intelligent, caring adults I knew they were capable of being.”

Not a far cry from what we learned in our ethics of journalism courses at Ole Miss.

Mary Lynn Kotz (’56), a journalist and author of “Rauschenberg: Art and Life;” and co-author of “Upstairs at the White House: My Life With the First Ladies.” She is married to Nick Kotz. Their son, Jack Mitchell Kotz, is a photographer.

Photo by H. Darr Beiser/ USA TODAY staff

By Clancy Smith

What is “a deuce and a quarter?”

Dennis Moore’s first internship interview was turning into a complete disaster. Having driven to Memphis, Tennessee from Oxford, the extremely nervous Ole Miss senior sat facing the editor of The Commercial Appeal.

Dennis racked his brain. Nothing.

Next question: Flying in a straight line from Memphis to the South Pole, what countries do you pass over?

Dennis struggled to come up with an answer.

After a bout of similar questions, Dennis left the office. He did not receive the internship.

Later he would learn that “a deuce and a quarter” is a street name for a Buick Electra 225.

“I guess he wanted to see if I had street cred,” Moore said.

Today, Dennis Moore works as a managing editor for USA Today in Washington, D.C. He serves as editor of the “Life” section, which covers all things entertainment.

“I never thought that I would be able to play in such an arena,” he said.

Moore grew up in Memphis before making the decision to attend Ole Miss at the suggestion of a close friend.

“From day one I felt like I was part of the Ole Miss family and never, ever regretted that decision,” Moore said.

A career in journalism was not an obvious choice for Moore. He tried majoring in pre-med, psychology and business before discovering his passion for journalism.

“I fell in love with writing and editing and the university faculty guided me on to what eventually became a really fulfilling career.”

While at Ole Miss, Moore served as an editor and reporter for The Daily Mississippian, an editor of the Ole Miss yearbook and president of Chi Psi Fraternity and was active in the leadership society Omicron Delta Kappa.

Will Norton, dean of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media, who taught Moore during his time at Ole Miss, said that The Daily Mississippian staff of which Moore was assignments editor was probably as good as any college newspaper staff anywhere in the nation. “They were great reporters and editors,” he said. “They were committed to covering the news, and they believed in freedom of expression and were tough minded. So they were less likely to be defined by other people’s opinions. “They knew who they were, and they didn’t let what other Moore in college at The Daily Mississippian, The Clarion-Ledger and now at USA Today, says that Moore is humble about his talent. “If you listen to Dennis,” he said, “you wouldn’t have any idea of what a strong journalist he is, how ethical he is, what a strong editor he is and just design-wise what he brings to the table as far as making the product attractive. “He really has the whole package.” Anklam sees the effect Moore has on those he works with. If you listen to Dennis you wouldn’t have any idea of what a strong journalist he is, how ethical he is, what a strong editor he is and just design-wise what he brings to the table as far as making the product attractive. — FRED ANKLAM “ people thought decide who they thought they were.” “He’s the kind of person that once you just work with him a

Moore notes that some of his very best friends were made at little bit you just respect where he’s coming from and what he’s Ole Miss. He still keeps in touch with them. bringing from experience and his background as an editor,”

“That’s one of the marvelous things about Ole Miss,” he Anklam said. said. “The lifelong friendships you develop.” One of Moore’s favorite assignments was covering the

After his time at Ole Miss, Moore jump started his career Winter Olympics in 2010. He spent about three and a half by accepting a position at The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson. weeks producing a video blog and publishing articles in and Although the newspaper did not have any openings for writers, around Vancouver, British Columbia, about activities outside like he had hoped, he began work as a copy editor and forged the athletic competitions. his own path. Moore also was invited by Disney to visit the set of “The

Moore essentially made his own assignments. He would Help” while the movie was being filmed in Mississippi. He write a story and turn it in to the editor without being asked. prides himself on being the first to do a cover story on Octavia His superiors liked the stories, saw promise and published Spencer, the actress who went on to receive an Academy Award them. for her role as Minny in the movie.

“I had to take the initiative — and certainly I encourage When he is not working, Moore enjoys long-distance runanyone who has an interest, which is not necessarily being fulning, bicycling and hiking. He also looks forward to coming filled in the job that they’re in to find a work-around,” Moore said. “That’s what I did.” down to see Ole Miss play football every now and then. From The Clarion-Ledger, Moore moved on to work in editor positions in Rochester, New York, and Orlando, Florida. “I spend so much time in the office that I guess I like to spend as much time outdoors as I can when I’m not in the Then he received a phone call from an old editor friend at The office,” Moore said. Clarion-Ledger, asking if he would like a job at USA Today. Norton has hopes of seeing Moore around Oxford again

“Another good lesson,” Moore said. “Stay in good stead soon. with all the people you’ve worked with in the past because you “I’ve been wanting him to teach a class here and bring in never know when they’re going to turn around and do you big some of his movie producer friends.” favors.” Beyond that, Moore has helped the Meek School in a variety

Challenges that Moore faced in his transition from a local of ways. newspaper to USA Today included his stark Southern accent “He’s been very generous financially, and he’s very interested and a necessary adjustment to an around-the-clock publication. While he has learned to temper the accent a bit, Moore says adjusting to the demands of such a large news source was a little more difficult. in education,” Norton said. “He’s very interested in helping people who are coming from the same background he did, so I would think his legacy will be using his life experiences to help

“The pressure of working for a 24/7 publication is really others achieve their goals.” challenging because you can never unplug,” he said. “You And what advice does Dennis Moore give to journalism always have to be aware of news that’s happening and the speed students hoping to achieve similar success? of competition is so intense now.” “Learn to tell a good story.”

Fred Anklam, an Ole Miss alumnus who worked with The author is a senior, journalism major from Satillo, Mississippi.

By Alison Bartel

Celia Pan began her journalism career at the University of Mississippi under the most unlikely circumstances.

In June 1992, during the summer of her junior year in college, Pan (Pan Xi, in Chinese) was in her first week as an intern with a small government travel agency in Beijing. An English major at the Foreign Language Institute, she had already won national contests in speaking and writing in China—both in English and Chinese—and a songwriting competition for Chinese music. Her American Literature teachers, both from East Coast colleges, had urged her to apply to U.S. universities, and subsequently she was offered scholarships from Brown, Bryn Mawr and Emerson. She discovered, however, that the Chinese government and our government would not allow entry without proof of total support while abroad. She would be required to spend five years of national service (which could have included the Chinese army) after graduation. Only then could she re-apply, and only to graduate school, behind thousands of other students.

Her first assignment with the travel agency was a group of 10 tourists from throughout the U.S., to study “Art, Healing, and Spirituality in China,” a trip that would take them to cities and remote villages in the countryside. A country guide remained with them throughout the trip, and the group had a city guide for each city. Among the 10 in their first trip to mainland China was Mary Lynn Booth Kotz, a journalist, author and Ole Miss alumna based in Washington, DC. Pan, in the first week, was their city guide.

“She spoke perfect English,” Kotz said, “and quickly parsed the regional accents in our van. She had memorized every historic site in the huge city, and kept us spellbound. She was young, innocent, enthusiastic, and eager to help us.”

Kotz described how three in the group decided to “adopt” Pan after learning of her looming national service, and how she wanted to be a writer. The three named her Celia, after explaining that Xi would be quite difficult for Americans. She was asked what kind of writing she’d like to pursue — and answered that she’d seen CNN — commercial television — for the first time in hotel lobbies.

“She thought the visuals were impressive, a good way to send the message,” Kotz said. “I told her about the broadcast journalism program at Ole Miss, and described a lovely campus and village in my home state. Our most famous novelist lived there, I went on. ‘Have you heard of William Faulkner?’ She clapped her hand excitedly. ‘William Faulkner! I love William Faulkner! The Town, The Mansion, A Rose For Emily!’ Her spontaneous joy spread all over our van.”

With aid from her three friends in the group, Pan applied for a student visa. After standing in long lines for days at the U.S. embassy, being denied twice. Only after assistance from an Ole Miss alumnus, Sen. Thad Cochran in Washington, was she granted a visa. By this time, she had been offered several scholarships to study journalism at the university. Shortly before registration, Pan arrived in Memphis, Tennessee.

“She was 20 and looked 16,” Kotz said. “For the next few days, we were hosted in her first American city by a 1952 Ole Miss journalism grad, Harry ‘Chigger’ Danzinger. I drove her down to Oxford, past the countryside and beauty of Sardis Lake and Dam. Her surprise and enthusiasm were enchanting. This America had been unknown to her. After we arrived in Oxford shortly before registration, I called my husband Nick Kotz, a Pulitzer Prize- winning journalist in Washington, to announce: ‘We have a daughter’.”

“She (Kotz) was way beyond a mentor to me,” Pan said. “More like a mother to me during my years in the U.S. Beyond caring for my personal life and taking me into her family warmly, which made me blend into American life much more easily than most other foreign students, she has had a tremendous impact on me intellectually.”

At Ole Miss, Kotz introduced Pan to Ed Meek, director of public relations at the university and later a donor for whom the Meek School was named. When he described his first meeting with Pan, Meek recalled checking her into her dorm, noticing her trying to figure out what to do with a paper bag. After asking what it contained, he discovered that the bag was full of currency. That was how Chinese students transported cash when going to study abroad, he recalled, when the Chinese banks did not have easy service connection to the international financial world.

“She grew after that,” Meek said. “She was so smart, and learned English so quickly. There was no question that she would have a great career.”

Meek assisted Pan with university orientation, helping her design an appropriate course schedule for her first semester, which included introduction to journalism writing, public relations, and Southern Studies 101, a class to make Pan at ease with a new cultural environment. He also helped her understand Deep South accents. “To keep her grades high for her scholarships, she took a course in calculus for an easy A early in her Ole Miss years,” Kotz said. “Thereafter, she took many electives. Her favorite was a creative writing course in the English department. In art, she studied and created ceramics. In drama, she directed, designed and made costumes for, and starred in ‘Agnes of God.’ In each of those classes, the professors invited her to change majors — to their own subjects.”

In her main, intense mission, and under the mentorship of Kotz, Meek, and journalism professors such as Ralph Braseth, Pan flourished in the university’s journalism program. Braseth, who then taught the broadcast reporting class, recalls that even though he was a self-proclaimed “tough grader,” Pan still excelled in his courses. In her thesis film for his documentary reporting class, Pan examined Oxford through the eyes of a foreign student.

“It was the finest film I’d seen produced by a student at Ole Miss,” Braseth said. In the process of filming, she became familiar with the people of Oxford and its Southern history. She remembered interviewing a quintessential Southern lady who led Pan through her big house, straight to the bedroom. On the bed’s headboard, was a bullet hole. The woman’s great-grandmother had been killed during the Civil War in that very bed. Like many places in the South, history was bleeding from every crevice, but redemption was the common theme. The woman did not emphasize the death that had taken place generations ago, Pan recalled, but rather that babies had been born in the bed.

To this very day, Pan continues to draw on her experiences interviewing the people of Oxford for the documentary. “Southerners are great storytellers,” Pan said. “Very vivid and personal. And they are also very genuine and less worried about being politically or ideologically correct. All this made it a great experience to document them, the human side, the dignity, the romance, the humor and the heaviness of history that came out of all the great stories and details I was able to uncover.”

After graduating from the University of Mississippi summa cum laude in June 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism, Pan moved on to Stanford University with a $30,000 fellowship to pursue a master’s degree in communication with an emphasis in documentary film and video. There, to help support herself during her second year, she worked for a Stanford students’ start-up, called Yahoo. Her master’s thesis, with further grants and a loaned camera, was filmed back in Beijing. Kotz and her husband flew to Stanford for her 1997 graduation, and to view the class’ films, shown to the public.

Pan next worked for a California documentarian as an editor, viewing and cataloguing 400,000 feet of footage for, as it turned out, a prize winning film. But after two years, in 1999, she decided to return to China to reunite with her high school sweetheart, Wang Yang, who since her departure had become a music sensation in mainland China — and had visited her twice at Stanford. With the stage name Lao Lang, which literally translates as “old wolf,” a nickname she had given him at 14, Yang founded a genre of Chinese folk-rock music for young people that was being called the “Simon & Garfunkel style of China.” It peaked in the 1990s and emphasized the romanticism of youth. Later, it evolved into the pop genre, with Lao Lang still at the top of his popularity 24 years later.

Pan’s relationship with Wang was just one tie to her homeland. Although Pan received her journalism education in the U.S., her original journalistic inspiration was also back on the Chinese mainland. Pan’s father had been a foreign correspondent for China’s official news outlet, Xinhua News Agency. During his career, he came back with stories and novelties from nations around the world.

“In a still relatively closed society during the 1980s, I was fascinated by the utterly exotic items my dad brought back for me,” Pan said. “As a result, I thought being a reporter meant you would have exposure to a much bigger and more exciting world, and that in a way, set the tone later for me to pursue journalism,” she said.

When Pan returned home in 1999, it was to a very different

China — one that had been burgeoning during her seven-year absence, with economic growth, urbanization and technological development. The closed society in which Pan grew up was filled with forests of skyscrapers and teenagers glued to their cellphones while gliding across cities in streamlined subways. She continued to pursue documentary filmmaking, working on programs for PBS and CCTV, but between the modernized China and her Silicon Valley experience, she was drawn to a new industry that was transforming the way people live in Photo by Rui Wang China: the Internet. “The pull of the Internet was really exciting,” she said. “Also, the skills I acquired producing documentaries and liking writing really helped me become a good marketer later in my career. In the end, I think you’d better go with what you’re most passionate about.”

She became the first editor from mainland China at Yahoo, founding the Yahoo Chinese search engine hierarchy. Pan next orchestrated digital operations in China for Google and IDG before accepting her current position in May 2011 as general manager of digital operations at Condé Nast China, an international branch of the mass media empire that boasts publications like Vogue, The New Yorker, Allure, and GQ. Her job consists of managing the company’s transition stage from traditional print media into new media in China.

“The challenge is to tailor a product, such as a website or an app for a magazine’s print counterpart, to today’s fragmented on-the-go lifestyle,” Pan said. “You must, in essence, tell a two-minute story for the teenager on the subway fiddling with his cellphone. You soon see that the constant attention to the target readers and their differentiated experience, beyond the lifestyle and consumptions that this company’s publications portray on the surface, is what really matters.”

Pan has taken up the challenge with gusto, leading Condé Nast China publications to rank number one in digital media in the fashion and lifestyle websites category while reaching more than 38 million users on a monthly basis, and having multiple apps honored as “Best of the Year” by Apple in the newsstand categories. She attributes those successes to the decades of accumulating relevant experiences along her career path. “It’s a great area to be in,” Pan said, “because it’s merging what I’ve been interested in all along — communication, art, technology and a global point of view. It has enabled me to merge my passions nicely.”

The author is an international studies and Chinese double major and an intelligence and security studies minor. She is a senior from Harvest, Alabama. Photo credit: Rui Wang

Photo courtesy of The Commercial Appeal

Otis Sanford, former managing editor of The Commercial Appeal and current holder of the Hardin Chair of Excellence in Journalism at the University of Memphis, was inducted in the Tennessee Journalism Hall of Fame. Five others were included in the 2014 class: Joe Birch, longtime anchor at WMC-TV in Memphis; Bob Johnson, co-anchor of WTVC in Chattanooga; Alex Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer with the New York Times; Luther Masingill, WDEF Radio/TV; and Sam Venable, columnist with the Knoxville News Sentinel.

By Jennifer Thurman

Since his years at Ole Miss, Otis Sanford has had an exceptional media career.

He is a political commentator for WREG-TV Channel 3 in Memphis, Tennessee, a columnist for the Commercial Appeal and the Hardin Chair of Excellence in Journalism at the University of Memphis.

Before these positions, he was managing editor of the Commercial Appeal. During those years, he was named a member of the University of Mississippi Alumni Hall of Fame and was elected president of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association. He was appointed to the APME board in 2004 and served in various positions before eventually becoming president in 2009.

“It was fabulous to lead a great news organization that represents the interest of newspapers throughout the nation,” Sanford said.

Sanford was born in Como, Mississippi, attended Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia, Mississippi, and received a journalism scholarship from the University of Mississippi in 1973. He graduated from Ole Miss in 1975 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.

It only took writing one news article in the seventh grade for Sanford to decide journalism was the career for him. He wrote for

his high school newspaper and took as many journalism classes as he could before attending the university. “Ole Miss has one of the best journalism programs around,” he said. “It set the ground work for me, taught me what I needed to know and made me appreciate journalism even more. “I was attending Ole Miss when there was an incredible interest Commercial Appeal, called again. He made an offer Sanford could not refuse — deputy managing editor of the Memphis newspaper. “I stuck with him because I recognize talent,” McEachran said. “As you get older you try to groom people to take your place, and he was always someone I thought could do the job.” In 1997 he participated in creating a student newspaper, the Teen Ole Miss has one of the best journalism programs around. It set the ground work for me, taught me what I needed to know and made me appreciate journalism even more. — OTIS SANFORD “ in journalism, primarily because of the Watergate scandal, and so Appeal. Many high schools in Memphis did not have a newspaper, the preparations, the class discussions and lectures, and the hands-on and he wanted to increase participation in high school newspaper experience at The Daily Mississippian were just invaluable to me.” journalism. The Teen Appeal is still going strong today, and some

His first year at Ole Miss was at the height of the Watergate of the student journalists moved on to be reporters. In 2000, he hearings, Sanford said. Sen. Howard Baker, R-Tenn., a member of launched the DeSoto Appeal. Watergate Committee, spoke on campus, and Sanford was assigned to cover the event for the campus paper. He was named managing editor in 2002 and created the citizen

Watergate was one of the biggest stories of his generation, and it editorial board in 2007. was a very exciting time to be doing journalism. He left the newspaper in 2010 to join the faculty of the depart

After graduation, Sanford was hired at the Clarion-Ledger in ment of journalism at the University of Memphis. Jackson as an entertainment writer. He left after two years to write He said after 35 years of being involved in the newspaper and hard news for the Commercial Appeal as a general assignment newsroom it was time to do something different, and he wanted to reporter. teach the new generation of journalists what journalism is all about.

Angus McEachran, Sanford’s editor at The Commercial Appeal, “I love teaching and being around students,” he said. “I try to called him “the smartest hire I have ever made.” help them understand this is a great profession and journalism is

“He is really bright, very organized, has great writing ability, one of the noblest things anyone can do. You can affect society and listens to people, and is fair-minded,” he said. “He is a true treasure public policy and be a voice for people who have no voice.” and has a natural instinct for news.” He also is a political commentator for WREG-TV Channel 3

Sanford recalls one of his most read stories. On Aug. 16, 1977, in Memphis and continues to write a column that appears in the McEachran rushed out of his office and told Sanford to go the Commercial Appeal on Sundays. hospital. Sanford dropped everything he was doing and spent the “Otis cares a lot about Memphis and wants to make a differafternoon interviewing as many people in the emergency room as he ence,” said Alex Coleman, WREG-TV anchor and news reporter. could. “He’ll put you to the test and get the answers the community

His article was a cover story on people’s reactions to Elvis’ death deserves. He takes pride in being a Southerner. He is committed and and appeared on the front page the next day. His story is still being attached to Memphis. He can share his opinions, because he wants sold as a souvenir edition. the best for Memphis.” He was assigned the federal court beat, covering federal trials, federal grand juries, the FBI, and all the federal government offices in the federal building, until he was promoted to assistant metro editor seven years later. Sanford was an assistant metro editor for a year until 1987 when Coleman said Sanford has a huge influence on the station by analyzing big stories and determining what issues there are, what should and shouldn’t be done, and how politicians should handle things. Sanford’s commentary airs Monday through Friday at 4:30 p.m. he was offered a job at the Pittsburgh Press. McEachran had moved “Otis’ commentaries and columns let you know what is right and to the Pittsburgh Press and offered Sanford a job as assistant city wrong,” Coleman said. “He affects the Memphis area greatly. He editor. Sanford stayed at the Pittsburgh Press until a labor strike shut is authoritative, well-researched, and takes his work very seriously. down the paper. Politicians even know that if they have done something wrong or

In 1992 he became deputy city editor at the Detroit Free Press something people don’t like, Otis will come knocking at their door.” for two years. Then McEachran, who had become editor of the The author is a senior, exercise science major from Birmingham, Alabama.

By Taylor Bennett “T he first thing you need now is really a passion for the business,” said Stephanie Saul, a seasoned New York Times reporter while speaking to a class of freshman journalism students on a cold October morning at the University of Mississippi.

“If you find that your assignment’s a chore,” Saul said, “and you’re not that interested in writing stories, and you’re not that interested in going out with a camera … If you don’t find it that interesting, maybe this isn’t right for you, because I have to tell you, this isn’t a particularly easy job. It’s very competitive, and you can find there are other things you can do that are easier.”

Through the years, she has covered everything from town meetings, state legislatures and Capitol Hill to the police beat, the FBI, local and federal courts and a smattering of other topics. At the Times she covered the pharmaceutical industry before becoming a member of a 10-person investigations team.

She has done her share of what one could call national reporting, having held the title of national reporter at Newsday from 1994 to 2000. A lot of this involved what she calls “parachuting” -- on-thefly coverage of breaking national stories. She has won her share of awards, but the most highly regarded is the Pulitzer Prize.

Stephanie Saul came to Ole Miss in 1972 from New Albany, Mississippi. She had hopes of breaking into the medical field after graduation. Journalism was extracurricular, a hobby. She never thought it could eventually lead to a Pulitzer Prize.

Saul has been a reporter all her life. She started by writing the “Snoop” column for her middle school newspaper. Her high school class of 1972 was the first fully desegregated class in New Albany. She was editor of the school newspaper.

“I was always really interested in journalism,” Saul said. “When I was in high school I wrote for my school newspaper, but I didn’t really think of it as a career option. I just thought there would be more career opportunities in medicine than in journalism.”

She enrolled in journalism classes in addition to her pre-med classes and became more interested in working at The Daily Mississippian, the campus newspaper.

While at Ole Miss, many journalism professors influenced Saul and among those was Jere Hoar, who taught courses in law and ethics, public opinion and feature writing.

“Stars fell on Mississippi in Stephanie Saul’s years here,” Hoar said. “She was one of many student journalists who would go on to become outstanding professionals on major or regional publications, on wire services, in politics, public relations, writing, journalism education, publication ownership, law and other fields.”

“I taught Stephanie in advanced reporting during the fall of 1974, the first semester I was on the Ole Miss campus,” said Will Norton, then an assistant professor and now dean of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. “She demonstrated intrepid reporting that would characterize her career in the elite press.”

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ole Miss in 1975, Saul went on to work as a staff reporter for The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Long Island newspaper Newsday. She is an investigative reporter for The New York Times and has worked there since 2005.

While working at Newsday, Saul won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting with Brian Donovan. Together they wrote a series of reports on abuse of disability pensions by Long Island police.

“When we first started that story,” Saul said, “we didn’t really expect it to be that big of a story.

“By the time the story was published, I thought it was a really strong entry in the Pulitzers, but a lot of times it’s really what else is being entered in your category that year.”

Saul recently was inducted into the University of Mississippi Alumni Hall of Fame.

In a letter of support of her nomination for the honor, Gregory E. Brock, senior editor for standards at The New York Times, wrote: “I could speak at length about Stephanie’s professional credentials. But I think her journalistic accomplishments — particularly the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting — speak for themselves.

“The reason I strongly endorse her selection is because of what she contributes to Ole Miss now, not merely for what she has done in the past — which is, of course, usually how Hall of Fame inductees are judged. “She is without a doubt one of the best present-day ambassadors for Ole Miss. Just one appearance by Stephanie — say, at a Columbia University journalism class or at a national journalism conference — brings more credit and credibility to Ole Miss than the most sophisticated and expensive PR campaign you could ever create.” She has taught at Hofstra University, helped teach a course at Columbia and also served as an adjunct professor in the national reporting class at Columbia. The university replaced her with an out-of-work former journalist named Al Gore. “I wouldn’t be surprised,” Hoar said, “if, before she retires, one of her series for the Times is not nominated for, or recognized by the awarding of a second Pulitzer Prize.” “There are a lot of careers that choose people,” Saul said. “I think of it as kind of a niche profession, and it’s only good for some people.” The author is a junior, journalsim major from Picayune, Mississippi.

By Scott Fiene

He grew up in the Midwest, and knew nothing about the South — he had never been to Dixie and had no connections in the region. In fact, Mississippi seemed like a foreign land.

But after graduating from high school in the mid-1960s, he flew to Memphis, took a Trailways bus to Oxford and stepped onto the Ole Miss campus for the first time.

He carried his bags up the hill to Powers Hall and moved in.

Welcome, Dick Starmann, class of 1968. “It sounds crazy now,” said Starmann, who later served in the Army then joined the McDonald’s Corp., eventually becoming senior vice president of worldwide communications.

“Who in their right mind, in that era, who was raised in Chicago, would suddenly come down to Mississippi for college?”

But come here he did. “It was one of the best things I ever did in my life.”

His classmates called him Yank.

And he called Ole Miss home.

Starmann decided to attend Ole Miss because of the opportunity to double major in business and journalism — a dual degree not offered at many schools in the U.S. at the time. While there, he served in the ROTC program and was inducted into the Ole Miss Army ROTC Hall of Fame in 2010. He also was managing editor of The Daily Mississippian student newspaper.

“I had three loves at Ole Miss,” he said.

“First and foremost, I met my wife Kathy Smith from Vicksburg. She worked at the newspaper, and that’s how we got to know each other. My second love was working on the school newspaper. Third was the Army ROTC … my fraternity.”

At that time, the editor of the newspaper was selected in a campus-wide election. Starmann ran and was soundly trounced by the other candidate, Charles Overby, who later would be a successful corporate executive with The Gannett Co., Inc., and with the Freedom Forum.

“That election was a good lesson for me,” Starmann said. “I learned don’t run against somebody who is already so well established. While I was standing outside trying to get in a sorority house to speak, he [Overby] was already inside giving his speech.”

After his win, Overby offered Starmann the job as managing editor.

“He won the election, then I ended up doing a lot of the work,” Starmann said. “In addition to being a terrific person, Charles is a very smart guy.”

Thus, a lifelong friendship began between the two, and their paths would cross many times throughout their respective careers.

“When Starmann was at Ole Miss,” Overby said, “the majority of students were from Mississippi. In that era, he was an outsider, and his ability to succeed says a lot about his persistence and talent. He had to do more and be more than the other students.”

After graduation, Starmann was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, and then headed to Ft. Benning, Georgia, for infantry and paratrooper training. From there, it was on to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, where he trained for and was awarded the Green Beret. Then in 1969, he went to Vietnam, where he served in Army Special Forces as assistant operations officer in a classified reconnaissance outfit known as Project Delta.

“I was lucky as hell because I came home alive; more than 50,000 other men didn’t,” he said.

And then he became a hamburger guy.

“I interviewed with this old man named Ray Kroc who had started a little hamburger chain,” Starmann said. “He offered me a job as a regional marketing manager covering the entire Southeastern and Southwestern United States. I had a big territory but not many

stores, because at the time there weren’t very many McDonald’s. If I recall, there were maybe two in the whole state of Mississippi and maybe three or four in Alabama.

“I was a very lucky guy, because I got to work for the founder and chairman of a company that was ultimately going to become a pretty big organization. But my mother was devastated. She said ‘You went to college and double majored at Ole Miss and were an officer in the Army and now you’re going to work for a hamburger stand?’”

After quite a number of promotions — which made his mother feel better, no doubt — he was named senior vice president of worldwide communications where he oversaw media relations, public relations, internal communications, sports marketing, customer relations, financial media and international communications (and traveled to more than 100 nations on behalf of McDonald’s).

Along the way, he became a close personal friend of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc’s wife, Joan. After Ray’s death, he was a senior advisor to Joan, helping with, among other things, her ownership of the San Diego Padres baseball team (of which he was on the board of directors). When Joan died, he became co-trustee of her estate. He also was a founding member of the board of trustees of Ronald McDonald House.

Starmann retired from McDonald’s in 1998, but continues consulting around the world. His area of expertise? Something he’s got a lot of firsthand experience with: crisis management.

During his last 17 years at McDonald’s, Starmann was responsible for all internal and external communications functions, both in the U.S. and internationally. But he also oversaw a crisis task force, which was a small group of executives in corporate headquarters who were responsible for handling situations that directly threatened the brand.

“My job was to preserve and protect the Golden Arches — to keep the shine and sparkle on them,” he said. “I took this job very seriously, and we had some serious threats.”

Perhaps the biggest came in July 1984, when a man walked into a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro, California, and shot 43 people. Twenty-two died. At the time, it was the largest single massacre by an individual in American history. And of course, it instantly became worldwide news. “In 1984,” he said, “even without electronic media like we have today, it was on the front page of every newspaper in the world. One of the early AP wire photos that ran in color was a scene of the carnage from the restaurant. It was a terrible tragedy.”

Over the next few days, he and his team were interviewed by more than 1,400 media outlets, but soon a decision had to be made: What to do with the restaurant once the police investigation was concluded?

“After the police finished,” he said, “we had to ask ourselves do we clean it up, get new seating, new equipment and reopen, or do we tear it down? I finally was able to convince the president of McDonald’s USA that the best course of action was to tear it down. Get rid of it. It was the site of a horrible, horrible tragedy and that was never going to change.”

Once the decision was made to tear it down, Starmann made it happen immediately. Construction crews came in the middle of the night and began the demolition, starting with the road sign.

“We didn’t want camera crews filming the Golden Arches coming down,” he explained, noting they didn’t want media to start using phrases like falling arches, broken arches or bloody arches.

Within three hours, the restaurant was gone.

Although he graduated more than 45 years ago, Starmann still values the education he received at Ole Miss, especially the communication skills he learned in the journalism program.

“The professors were tough on us,” he said. “We’d write something, and rewrite it, and rewrite it again, and work on sentence structure. … I still do a lot of writing today. Words are very powerful things.”

And though not required, he took every speech course possible and was passionate about honing his interviewing, writing and speaking skills.

“So often in my career,” he said, “I’ve seen people who graduate from fabulous programs, and they’re bright students, but they’re terrible in interviews. They don’t know how to sell themselves. They don’t know how to talk to people.

“They’ve got all this knowledge and have taken all this time to learn many things, but they can’t articulate to someone why they should be hired. This can really hurt the start of a career.”

Starmann returns to campus regularly to speak to students, and serves on the board of visitors for the Meek School of Journalism and New Media.

And he still eats at McDonald’s regularly — at least twice a week, he says — and stays close to the company he loves.

“I’m a customer, a stockholder and an old hamburger guy.

“I’ve still got ketchup in my veins.

“And I’m still an Ole Miss Rebel!”

The author is the program director and an assistant professor of Integrated Marketing Communications. He spent 25 years in the corporate marketing communications and public relations profession before joining Ole Miss in January 2012.