Award-winning Journalistic Innovator Mitra Kalita Joins Poynter as Adjunct

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Oct. 2, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Mitra Kalita, one of the nation's leading digital innovators and current Quartz ideas editor, is joining The Poynter Institute's adjunct faculty.

Kalita, who was named one of Folio's Top 100 Women in Media for 2014, is also an author, a senior manager for three startups and is a frequent lecturer on digital storytelling.

Prior to her current position as Quartz ideas editor, she managed The Wall Street Journal's reporting on the Great Recession. She also spearheaded the launch of a local news section for New York City and covered the housing crisis. Additionally, she was a driving force behind the launch of Mint, a New Delhi business paper. Other previous editorial roles include her time spent on staff at the Washington Post, the Associated Press and Newsday. She also holds a position as adjunct professor of journalism at St. John's and Columbia universities, and is a past president of the South Asian Journalists Association.

"Mitra is a perfect fit for Poynter's teaching team, and her appointment symbolizes the institute's new strategic focus on digital innovation," said Tim Franklin, president of The Poynter Institute.  "Mitra has thrived at top legacy news organizations, and now at a growing digital operation, Quartz. At the same time, she's also gained experience teaching at Columbia University and St. John's. That background uniquely positions Mitra for Poynter. Mitra also is one of the nation's leaders when it comes to innovative digital storytelling. We couldn't be happier to have Mitra join our team."

Kalita began her affiliation with Poynter as a college student. "My introduction to Poynter came during a seminar for college editors," she said. "It was there I picked up lifelong lessons on ethics, storytelling, diversity, and management - all through the complicated lens of a journalist's desire for fairness, compassion, and accountability. A lot has changed in our profession since then and I've made the transition from legacy media to a digitally native, innovative startup in Quartz. But a lot hasn't; the Poynter rules I learned that summer in the late 1990s still apply.

"I am so honored to now be able to give back a little to this institution as an adjunct faculty member. As has always been tradition at Poynter, I expect to gain as much from participants as they might from me. And I look forward to figuring out together not just how our industry will survive but thrive."

"Mitra's an ideal complement to the Poynter faculty," said Kelly McBride, Poynter's vice president of academic programs. "She's smart, entrepreneurial and dynamic.  And she has the great combination of journalism chops, startup expertise and teaching experience to enhance our curriculum and help us lead the journalism industry."

About The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is an international leader in journalism education, and a strategy center that stands for uncompromising excellence in journalism, media and 21st century public discourse. Poynter faculty teach seminars and workshops at the Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., and at conferences and organizational sites around the world. Its e-learning division, News University, www.newsu.org, offers the world's largest online journalism curriculum in 6 languages, with more than 400 interactive courses and 290,000 registered users in more than 200 countries. The Institute's website, www.poynter.org, produces 24-hour coverage of news about media, ethics, technology, the business of news and the trends that currently define and redefine journalism news reporting. The world's top journalists and media innovators come to Poynter to learn and teach new generations of reporters, storytellers, media inventors, designers, visual journalists, documentarians and broadcast producers, and to build public awareness about journalism, media, the First Amendment and protected discourse that serves democracy and the public good.

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