Peck, Chris
Posted 1/11/2011 2:57:00 PM

Peck joined The Commercial Appeal as editor in December 2002. He oversees all news and editorial operations for the Scripps-owned newspaper, which was founded in 1838 and is the oldest continuously operated business in Memphis.

In the year before moving to Memphis Peck spent a year as the first Belo Distinguished Chair of Journalism at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He helped launch SMU's convergence journalism program.

Before his adventure in academia, Peck was editor of The Spokesman-Review in Spokane for 19 years. While there the paper won major journalism awards including the George Polk award, National Headliner awards, ASNE writing awards, Best-Designed Newspaper awards from the Society of News Design and 10 consecutive years as the General Excellence winner in the regional SPJ contents. The Spokesman-Review also was twice a Pulitzer finalist. And, Peck wrote a book about his life as a columnist for the newspaper.

Peck grew up in a newspaper family in Wyoming. His first job was as a janitor for the family newspaper. Today, his father and brother still publish the daily Riverton Ranger.

Peck worked four years for The Stanford Daily in college. He attended the Northwestern University's Advanced Executive Program for journalists. He has been a regular presenter at the Poynter Institute in programs related to diversity coverage and leadership.

He is a past president of APME. He was co-founder of the APME National Credibility Roundtables Project, which has helped more than 100 newspapers host local discussions about newspaper credibility.

This year Peck has served as an ASNE writing awards judge, a Best of Gannett judge and a judge for the Selden Ring awards for investigative journalism. He is a past Pulitzer judge and has read more regional AP contest entries than he cares to remember.

At ASNE he has organized convention segments related to international news reporting, civic journalism, journalism values and alternative newspapers.