Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist William K. Marimow will be joining ASU to lead Carnegie-Knight News21, the in-depth journalism program that is held at the Walter Cronkite School.
Marimow will be joining other top journalists as an executive editor of the program, and will be working alongside former Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie, Jr.
The addition of Marimow to the News21 program closely follows the announcement that the program will be funded for 10 years, thanks to $2.32 million in grants that were given through the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Also, for the first time, News21 will be able to select students from any journalism program in the country, and not just from the dozen Carnegie-Knight schools.
Christopher Callahan, Dean of the Cronkite School, said Marimow will make a great addition to the faculty that leads the News21 program.
“He’s one of these people who just loves working with young journalists … one of his great strengths is nurturing, mentoring, and inspiring young journalists,” Callahan said. “He did that when he was in the newsroom, and this is sort of the perfect setting. There’s going to be a lot of learning that is going to go on with Bill’s students.”
Marimow comes to the News21 program with an extraordinary background in journalism. He and a partner won a Pulitzer Prize in 1978 for stories they wrote for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Marimow won another Pulitzer in 1985 for investigative writing he wrote for The Inquirer, and after 14 years as a reporter moved up to an editing position at the paper.
In 1993 he held various editing position at The Baltimore Sun, including the top editing position. It was during his time there that he helped the paper win Pulitzers in the areas of featuring writing, investigative reporting, and beat reporting.
After 11 years with The Baltimore Sun, Marimow joined National Public Radio as a managing editor and later as the vice president for news. He returned to The Inquirer in 2006 and worked as the newspaper’s top editor.
Marimow has also served as a Pulitzer juror eight times.
“He has the ability to create great journalism, to lead great journalism, and then to evaluate great journalism,” Callahan said. “That is going to be very beneficial.”
Student fellows who participate in News21 will be taught by Downie in a fall seminar where they will be immersed in the topic they will cover through multi-dimensional investigative journalism. In the summer, News21 fellows will work closely with a team of top journalists that will be lead by Marimow and will work to produce investigative news packages.
Reach the reporter at katherine.torres@asu.edu
