Dean
Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University, Phoenix
Aspirations for ASNE
ASNE must embrace new thinking and real innovation to help lead journalism into the news future. Success will depend in part on building meaningful symbiotic relationships with new partners – including universities. At the Cronkite School, we’ve attempted to set a new path that not only embraces a digital future but works in real partnership with news leaders, whether providing compelling and trustworthy multimedia content, engaging in R&D projects or serving as an ideas incubator. I hope I could be a bridge between the industry and forward-thinking journalism schools, demonstrating the possibilities, warning of the dangers and building lasting partnerships that must be an integral part of the next generations of media.
Career
Callahan is the founding dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. He came to ASU in August 2005 from the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism, where he served as associate dean and senior editor of the American Journalism Review.
Under Callahan’s leadership, the Cronkite School has transformed into a national journalism leader known for its focus on multimedia journalism, innovation and entrepreneurship, intensive professional experiences and partnerships with news outlets. Cronkite has become a leader in providing news content to local, regional and national news organizations as well as directly to consumers through a series of innovative programs on all platforms. The school has been the centerpiece of recent articles about U.S. journalism education in The New York Times and The Times of London.
Over the past five years, Callahan has brought to the Cronkite School the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, the 12-university Carnegie-Knight News21 digital journalism initiative, the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship program for international journalists.
He spearheaded the creation of Cronkite News Service, (a daily statewide news service providing content on all platforms to news organizations), the New Media Innovation Lab (a research and development lab), Cronkite NewsWatch (a nightly newscast that reaches more than 1 million households on PBS), the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship (where students develop their own digital media products), Cronkite News (a daily news website focusing on statewide issues) and the Cronkite New Media Academy (which provides multimedia training to professional journalists).
Callahan also created new programs and partnerships with news media partners, including The Arizona Republic, ABC News, the Village Voice, Meredith Corp., the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, msnbc.com, the Center for Public Integrity and The Washington Post.
Under his leadership, the faculty has nearly doubled in size. New faculty members include former Washington Post Executive Editor Len Downie and two former ASNE presidents – former Minneapolis Star Tribune Editor Tim McGuire and former Sacramento Bee Executive Editor Rick Rodriguez – in addition to digital media leaders.
Over the past five years, Cronkite students have had the nation’s best record in the major intercollegiate journalism awards – Hearst and the Society of Professional Journalists – and have won consecutive Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards.
In addition, university resources to the school have doubled, despite deep universitywide cuts. And Callahan has raised $35 million from foundations, corporations and individual donors – a 1,100 percent increase He also led the planning for the Cronkite School’s new $71 million state-of-the art home on a new campus in downtown Phoenix.
Last year he was named the Scripps Howard Foundation Journalism Administrator of the Year.
Callahan is the author of “A Journalist's Guide to the Internet,” now in its third edition. In 2004, he led a joint study by Maryland and UNITY: Journalists of Color Inc. that explored the lack of racial diversity in the Washington press corps. Before entering journalism education, Callahan was a correspondent for The Associated Press in Washington and New England.
ASNE Activities
Callahan joined ASNE in 2009 as part of the first group of journalism deans and chairs asked to become members. He serves as co-chair of the Education for Journalism Committee and served on the First Amendment Committee.