Award-winning political journalist joins Scripps Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE: SSP) has named Dick Meyer, executive producer, America for the BBC News, as Chief Washington Correspondent for the Scripps Washington Bureau. Meyer will work on DecodeDC, a new multi-platform feature produced at the bureau, and will also write more broadly about Washington, effective Feb. 3.

An experienced reporter, writer and author, Meyer was also an early digital news leader and innovator. "After a long run in the management end of the news business, I'm lucky to have the opportunity to return to the really fun parts of journalism – writing and reporting," said Meyer. "And I'm lucky to be doing it with the creative and distinguished people at Scripps."

At the BBC, Meyer led the continued growth and expansion of the U.S. edition of the BBC News website. He also had editorial oversight of the newscast BBC World News America, which won an Emmy this year for Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story in a regularly schedule newscast.

From 2009 until 2011, Dick was NPR's Executive Editor, with responsibilities for managing NPR's worldwide news operation on-air and online. He played a key role in expanding NPR's investigative reporting, growing NPR's digital journalism, and in integrating broadcast and digital newsrooms. He joined NPR in 2008 as Editorial Director for digital media.

Meyer is also an author. He wrote a book on American culture and politics, Why We Hate Us: American Discontent in the New Millennium (Crown Publishing/Random House, August 2008).

Prior to joining NPR, Meyer was editorial director of CBSNews.com, where he wrote the popular "Against the Grain" column for many years. Before that, he was a producer for The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, in Washington, where he focused on political and investigative reporting. 

"Dick Meyer has a gift for writing and storytelling about politics and politicians that is brutally honest, iconoclastic and funny," said Ellen Weiss, vice president and Washington bureau chief for Scripps. "He's never predictable, always smart and is a great truth detector. We are incredibly fortunate to have a journalist with Dick's enormous talent and experience to help further develop DecodeDC online."  

Meyer is the recipient of an Alfred I. du Pont-Columbia University Award (1998), an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award (1998) and a Sigma Delta Chi Society of Professional Journalists Award (1998). He graduated from Columbia University in 1980 with a bachelor's degree in religion and from the University of Oxford in 1982 with a master's degree in politics.

Meyer has mild obsessions with fishing, the Chicago Bears and the American donut. He is married and has two children.

About Scripps
The E.W. Scripps Company (www.scripps.com) serves audiences and businesses through a growing portfolio of television, print and digital media brands. It owns 19 local television stations and daily newspapers in 13 markets across the United States and an expanding collection of local and national digital journalism and information businesses. Scripps also produces television programming, runs an award-winning investigative reporting newsroom in Washington, D.C., and serves as the long-time steward of one of the nation's most successful educational programs, Scripps Spelling Bee. Founded in 1879, Scripps is focused on the stories of tomorrow.

SOURCE The E.W. Scripps Company