NewsLab’s Deborah Potter Joins Grantham Prize Jury

NARRAGANSETT, RI – March 15, 2010 –The Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting has announced that Deborah Potter, founder and executive director of NewsLab, will be joining the team of jurors to select the 2010 Grantham Prize for excellence in reporting on the environment.

The Grantham Prize, the largest journalism cash prize in the world, honors the work of a journalist or team of journalists for exemplary reporting on environmental and/or natural resource issues with an award of $75,000.

“We are pleased to announce that Deborah Potter is joining our team of esteemed Grantham Prize jurors,” said Sunshine Menezes, administrator of the Grantham Prize. “Deborah’s extensive journalism background and multimedia experience will be invaluable during our Grantham Prize selection process.  We are very fortunate to have her as a member of our jury.”

Deborah Potter is an accomplished and experienced journalist, educator and moderator. As executive director of NewsLab, she provides training and online resources for journalists in all media. Potter is a veteran television reporter, having spent 16 years as a network correspondent for CBS News and CNN.

Potter is a highly regarded guest lecturer and leads workshops for journalists and students in the United States and around the world, focusing on reporting and writing the news online and visual storytelling, journalism ethics, and newsroom management. She also moderates panel discussions at national and regional conferences. For the past decade Potter has served as a featured columnist for the American Journalism Review, and she reports regularly for the PBS program Religion & Ethics Newsweekly. She is the co-author of Advancing the Story: Broadcast Journalism in a Multimedia World, published by CQ Press. In addition, other publications by Potter include the Handbook of Independent Journalism; Incoming: Advice for the Newly Named News Director; and Ready, Set, Lead: The Resource Guide for News Managers.

At CNN, Potter anchored news programs and reported on national politics and environmental issues. She joined CNN in 1991 after 13 years at CBS News, where she served as White House, State Department, and Congressional Correspondent, while also covering the environment. She was a frequent contributor to the prime time CBS News program 48 Hours and hosted the interview program Nightwatch.

Potter is one of five jurors participating in the selection process for the 2010 Grantham Prize. She joins Grantham Prize Jury Chair Philip Meyer, Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications; David Boardman, Executive Editor of the Seattle Times; Diane Hawkins-Cox, a freelance journalist and former Senior Producer with CNN Science and Technology Unit; and Robert B. Semple, Jr., Associate Editor of the Editorial Page for The New York Times.

About the Grantham Prize

The 2010 Grantham Prize is open to works of non-fiction originally published, broadcast, or posted online in the United States or Canada between January 1 and December 31, 2009. The deadlines for 2010 Grantham Prize entries have passed.

The purpose of the Grantham Prize is to encourage outstanding coverage of the environment and to recognize reporting that has the potential to bring about constructive change. Among the criteria jurors will consider are the significance of the subject matter, quality and originality of the journalism, and the effort involved in telling the story. The Prize-winning story will be broadly disseminated to increase public awareness of environmental issues and to inspire exceptional reporting.

Established in 2005, the Grantham Prize is funded by Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham through The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment. The foundation supports climate change research and natural resource conservation programs in the United States and internationally. Jeremy Grantham is a Boston-based investment strategist and Hannelore Grantham is the director of The Grantham Foundation. 

The Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting administers the Grantham Prize. The mission of the Metcalf Institute is to promote clear and accurate reporting of scientific news and environmental issues; to strengthen understanding and working relationships between members of the scientific community and members of the news media; and to provide opportunities for beginning journalists to learn, on both a formal and an informal level, how to improve their skills in marine and environmental reporting. For more information regarding Metcalf Institute and its programs, please visit www.metcalfinstitute.org.

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