Author Profile: Ken Doctor

Doctor received his BA in Sociology from University of California, Santa Cruz in 1971, and obtained his master degree majored in Journalism from University of Oregon, 1976 (This is based on his LinkIn page; however, on his Bio from Content Bridges, he earned his master degree in 1981).

Doctor first began his career as editor for newspaper and magazine. He then had been working for Knight Ridder for about 20 years (from 1986 to 2005), and his positions including managing editor at Saint Paul Pioneer Press, VP for editorial at Knight Ridder New Media, and VP for content services at Knight Ridder Digital. Doctor currently works in different roles: he is a Media Industry Analyst at Outsell, a consulting company providing services to publishing and information firms; Doctor is the President of his own company Content Bridges, which focuses on “project engagements that add value by building relationships between and among media-oriented and Internet-based enterprises.” Besides, he also writes a weekly column for Nieman Journalism Lab, where our reading for this week comes.

Doctor published his book “Newsonomics: Twelve NewTrends That Will Shape the News You Get” in 2010 by St. Martin’s Press. In this book, Doctor described how news media had changed in the digital age, and the reasons for those changes. Moreover, he offered the 12 laws that will shape the news that readers will get, and some of these laws echo our discussions in previous readings. For example, Law # 6 “It’s a Pro-Am World”, which can be explained as the interplay between audience and the creation of news. Or Law #7 “reporters become bloggers” where the line between these two roles blurs. Doctor also runs a companion website for this book, where you can find the major viewpoints of this book.

Based on his years of experiences as industry consultant, Doctor also gives many public talks about the development and future of journalism in the digital age. In his most recent interview with VOCER in this year and his presentation for Minnesota Public Radio in late 2009, Doctor talked about the future of news.

For more information about Doctor, you can visit his LinkIn page and his Bio on Newsonomics and Content Bridges.