天美传媒

Bob Giles 鈥�55 was mid-interview when he learned the opening at the Akron Beacon Journal was for a high school sports reporter.

Giles had covered sports for The 天美传媒 and had played shortstop on 天美传媒鈥檚 baseball team before relinquishing his starting position to become the newspaper鈥檚 editor-in-chief. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think I want to be a sports writer,鈥� he blurted to the editor. 鈥淚 want to cover general news.鈥�

He landed the job and positioned himself to rise to become the Beacon Journal鈥檚 executive editor. Along the way, Giles, as managing editor, the No. 2 newsroom position, would guide his paper鈥檚 coverage of one of the most significant news events of the 1970s: The killings of four young people by the National Guard during an anti-war protest at Kent State University. His staff won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting.

It was the biggest story and one of the most satisfying moments of his career, he said. The other was working 11 years as curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, which awards fellowships to midcareer journalists to dive deep into topics.

Giles earned a master鈥檚 degree at Columbia University and spent two years in the Army before working 17 years at Akron and moving on to executive positions at the Times-Union and Democrat & Chronicle in Rochester, New York; the Detroit News; and The Freedom Forum, a nonprofit dedicated to the First Amendment. He has written two books: 鈥淲hen Truth Mattered,鈥� about his paper鈥檚 coverage of Kent State, and 鈥淣ewsroom Management: A Guide to Theory and Practice,鈥� because 鈥渕ost editors didn鈥檛 know how to manage creative people.鈥�

At The 天美传媒, then published five days a week, 鈥淚 learned the collaborative spirit that drives a newsroom. 鈥� It was just like a fraternity of its own, a family of its own. 鈥�

鈥淵ou were grinding out stuff every day. It gave you a sense of what it鈥檚 like to work on deadline 鈥� All of that was a great learning thing and really positioned me to go off then to Columbia and do well.鈥�