Ron Reason Email & Phone Number

Portland, Oregon

I developed a unique niche working with multimedia news publishers, nonprofits, universities and private business worldwide, helping them rethink, redesign and rebrand publications and move their organizations, leadership and storytelling strategies forward. My client roster includes Advertising Age, the NCAA’s “Champion” magazine, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, The Harvard Crimson, the San Francisco Examiner, The Standard (Nairobi, Kenya), Gulf News and Emirates Post (Dubai) and The Dallas Morning News.

Missoula, Montana

I was honored to be selected for the first endowed Spring Semester Distinguished Professorship in the School of Journalism, and created and taught a master class titled "Critical Thinking About Design and Disruption." My focus: editorial innovation, visual storytelling, marketing and branding, and the reinvention of multi-platform news publishing. Highlights included extensive and ongoing study of reinvention happening in real time at The New York Times and hosting Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet in our classroom. I also advised and mentored student journalists at the Montana Kaimin during a year of attempted reinvention of their cross-platform publishing strategies, with an emphasis on learning best practices in social media and digital storytelling, and counseled many students on career and study options as well as personal challenges.

Bloomington, In

For six years I served with a group of distinguished alumni advisors, meeting twice yearly with Dean Brad Hamm on issues including program development, outreach, marketing and recruitment. One highlight: a year-long effort helping to plan programming, publications and outreach for the school's centennial celebration.

Chicago

For several years I served on this panel of Chicago area media experts, informally advising Columbia students and faculty on issues relating to the real-world workplace.

Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida Area

The Poynter Institute for Media Studies (since renamed, simply, Poynter) is an international school, think tank, and advocate for working journalists and students in all media. For five years I served as full-time Faculty Member and Director of Visual Journalism programs (1995-2000), responsible for the creation of an annual slate of 12-18 seminars and conferences relating to all aspects of visual storytelling: photojournalism, design, infographics, art direction, leadership, typography, and ethics and diversity. Throughout my tenure, my work and programming emphasized issues of diversity, equality and fairness. This ranged from photojournalism seminars that explored, in-depth, how to fairly portray communities, to leadership programs that examined the employment and depiction of LGBTQ people and fair reporting on LGBTQ issues. I taught regularly throughout the year with and for established trade associations including black, Hispanic and Asian-American journalists. (During this period I also served as co-founder and leader of the Tampa Bay chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.) My work at Poynter included recruitment and supervision of several full-time faculty and, each year, dozens of visiting instructors, who were leaders in storytelling around the world. I also edited print and digital publications and assisted with research and marketing efforts, and taught regularly in Poynter's programs on writing and editing, ethics, diversity, and leadership. I am most proud of being the first to usher in training and discussion of digital journalism, launching our first seminars on web design, digital portfolio creation, and animated graphics. For many years I regularly returned to Poynter as Guest Instructor, teaching in a variety of programs. Visit www.poynter.org for more info about Poynter's current work, with a renewed emphasis on championing truth and the role of the media in defending and preserving democracy.

Chicago, Il

From the office of my consulting business in the Fountainhead Lofts building in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, I created and managed this art gallery, presenting 14 exhibits featuring more than 50 artists over two years. Our primary presence was at the neighborhood's "2nd Fridays" gallery and art open house monthly event, welcoming 400-600 art viewers at each opening. Special exhibits included co-hosting benefits, with Chicago's Firebelly Design team, to raise money for the arts in Chicago public schools and for a community library I started in Kenya, which delivered 3,800 books to Nairobi's largest slum. This gallery venture ended up being one of my life's highlights. It was a ton of work for little to no economic reward, but I'd do it again in a second.

For three years I procured and directed redesign projects around the world, managing teams and/or working as part of a larger team. Clients included The Wall Street Journal, Gulf News of Dubai, Nowy Dziennik (Polish newspaper of New York City), San Francisco Examiner, and others. For three months I worked out of the firm's Buenos Aires office. Following my formal tenure in this role, I remained with Garcia Media as a freelance consultant on a number of projects. A highlight was the development of custom staff, leadership, and organizational training for the NEXT multi-platform news startup in Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria.

Chicago, Il

I was hired for a one-year consultation to redesign the newspaper, then formally joined the management team for a bit longer, to train the newsroom, direct ongoing redesign efforts and hire a new generation of designers, artists and editors.

For 10 years I worked as graphics and picture editor, copy editor, news editor, page designer, and ultimately, design director at the St. Petersburg Times, consistently regarded as one of America's best regional newspapers and one of the last truly independent newspapers in the country. (The paper was later rebranded as the Tampa Bay Times.)

Through a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Fellowship, I cut my chops on the National Desk of The Washington Post, editing copy and writing headlines and captions.