Howard Finberg’s Bio: The Latest/Last Version

Here’s my biography, as of April 2015. 

Note: this is the last “official bio” that I created.

Howard I. Finberg is an affiliate of The Poynter Institute for Media Studies and managing director of The Digital Futurist Consultancy.

Previously he served Director of Training Partnerships and Alliances at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Florida. Among his responsibilities is business development for Poynter’s e-learning site, News University, and creation of Poynter’s international teaching and partnerships.

Before taking on this new role at the Institute, Finberg was the founder of Poynter NewsU (www.newsu.org), which reaches more than 300,000 registered uses in more than 200 countries. He developed the strategic vision for this unique e-learning site, which depends on a mix of training methods and approaches.  In addition, he teaches, writes and does research around e-learning and digital publishing issues. He joined Poynter in 2002 as the Institute’s Presidential Scholar, where he examined technology’s impact on media and how new technologies might be integrated into Poynter’s teaching and publishing.

Prior to joining Poynter in 2002 he was founder and managing director of the Digital Futurist Consultancy (www.digitalfuturist.com). Among his clients were The San Francisco Chronicle, the McClatchy Company, MediaNews Interactive, Hearst Interactive, and the Newspaper Association of America.

Finberg was a corporate vice president at Central Newspapers, where he managed the company’s Internet and technology investments and provided strategic and operational guidance for the company’s print and online efforts. He served as a director at Phoenix Newspapers, Inc., which publishes The Arizona Republic. At The Republic, Finberg led the creation and launch of the award-winning online service, Arizona Central (www.azcentral.com) on the Web and on America Online in early 1995.  Finberg was honored as the Newspaper Association of America “New Media Pioneer” in 2000.

He also held senior newsroom management positions at The Republic and at the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune and worked at the San Jose Mercury News, San Francisco Examiner and The New York Times. Mr. Finberg established the Chicago Tribune’s graphics desk, one of the firsts in the country, and was the founding editor of the country’s first syndicated newspaper graphics service. He is the co-author of Visual Editing: A Graphic Guide for Journalists.”

A graduate of San Francisco State University, he was awarded the first distinguished journalism department alumni award in 2008.

There is also a Wikipedia page that has many biographical pieces.

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