Newest Knight Chair at Carolina focuses on innovation in digital advertising
The UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media is increasing its focus on the business side of digital media with a new Knight Chair in Digital Advertising, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Jean Folkerts, dean of the school, said the new chair will accelerate the school’s work in digital media economics and emerging advertising models.
The chair will collaborate with the school’s Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics, Penny Abernathy, who joined the school in 2008. Both chairs will study consumer use of digital media.
“Media leaders around the world agree that more and more of their revenues must come from digital products and services,” said Eric Newton, Knight Foundation’s vice president for journalism programs. “The newest Knight chair at UNC will address the news community’s most pressing problem – where does digital media revenue come from?”
Abernathy, who analyzes digital media trends and develops strategies for media companies, asserts that news organizations must adapt to new market conditions by identifying new models for recapturing advertising revenue, such as local search applications and direct digital marketing campaigns.
“News has gone digital, but successful advertising models have lagged,” Folkerts said. “Adding this professorship in digital advertising enables Carolina to take head-on the challenge of creating effective new digital forms of advertising.”
Since 1990, the Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has endowed more than two dozen Knight Chairs at leading American universities. The chairs are innovative teachers who, through their own journalism and special projects, advance journalism excellence in the digital age.
UNC is one of only two journalism schools in the country to have two Knight chairs. (The University of Miami is the other.) Folkerts said the two professorships will create a national resource at the school by expanding its community news experiments and innovation in digital advertising, particularly at the local level.
Through a combination of new and existing funds, more than $1.7 million will be committed to the new professorship, which will be filled in June 2011.
Additional grant funds will support the expansion of Abernathy’s current research to develop multimedia case studies that focus on business challenges faced by media companies in the digital environment. The school will develop a new Web site to disseminate the case studies, recommendations and research of both Knight chairs.
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Since 1950, the foundation has granted more than $400 million to advance quality journalism and freedom of expression. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote informed, engaged communities and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.
About the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media
The UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media is observing the 100th year of journalism education at UNC. Since UNC’s first journalism course in 1909, the school has grown into a national leader in research and teaching and is helping media adapt during a time great change for the industry. The school is a member of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism. In its centennial year, the school has launched an ambitious new curriculum, converted its television studio to high definition, expanded its global reach and forged new research partnerships to ensure that quality journalism thrives in the digital age.