William Schmidt

Biography

 

 

William E. Schmidt – Professor of Practime, University of Arizona

William E. Schmidt is a Professor of Practice in the School of Journalism at the University of Arizona, and a co-director and a founder of the "Journalism on Screen" series at The Loft Cinema.  He was co-director of the University’s Center for Border and Global Journalism from 2014 until July, 2019. 

Mr. Schmidt joined the faculty in Tucson in August, 2013, following his retirement as Deputy Managing Editor of the The New York Times, where he served as an editor and correspondent for 32 years.  In 1987, he was among a group of two editors and six correspondents who shared the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for their coverage of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

He was a member of senior management in The Times newsroom since March 1997, mostly overseeing personnel, budgetary and labor issues, including  standards and ethics.   He also was the newsroom’s point person on matters of security and safety involving  Times correspondents and bureaus abroad. 

Previously, he was a correspondent and a reporter in both foreign and domestic bureaus for The Times and Newswek magazine.

 Mr. Schmidt joined The Times in February 1981, and spent most of his career as a Times correspondent outside New York, including Denver, Atlanta and Chicago.  From 1991 to 1995, he was the newspaper’s London correspondent, writing from the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans as well as the United Kingdom.

In 1995, he was assigned to New York as deputy national editor, where he helped direct The Times coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing and the 1996 Presidential campaign.

Mr. Schmidt worked for Newsweek for eight years as a foreign and national correspondent.  He was the magazine’s bureau chief in Moscow, Cairo and Miami.   He also served as a correspondent in Newsweek’s Chicago bureau.  From 1969 to 1973, Mr. Schmidt was a reporter with The Detroit Free Press.

In addition to sharing a Pulitzer Prize, he also shares a George Polk Award for national reporting for coverage of the shootings at Kent State University, and an Overseas Press Club award for his reporting for Newsweek on the war in Lebanon.

In 2012, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Coker College in Hartsville, South Carolina. 

He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, and a past president of the Association of American Correspondents in London.

Born in Detroit, Mr. Schmidt received a B.A degree in journalism from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.  He is the father of three children.

 

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William E. Schmidt

3765 N. Camino de la Familia  Tucson, AZ 85750

Tel: 520-345-4126 (home), 917-873-9931 (cell), 520-621-5909 (office)

E-mail: wes315@gmail.com, wschmidt@email.arizona.edu

 

 

 

 

University of Arizona

 

• Professor of Practice, School of Journalism, Tucson, AZ      August, 2013 – Present

Teaches undergraduate courses in Advanced Reporting and Feature Writing

 

• Co-director, Center for Border and Global Journalism           October, 2014 -- July, 2019

Oversaw the University of Arizona’s Center for Border and Global Journalism, which on  behalf of the School of Journalism develops programs and initiatives to enable students and professional journalists to meet the challenges – and growing peril – of reporting across frontiers.

• Co-director, Journalism on Screen at The Loft Cinema            September, 2015 -- Present

Supervises and helps host film series that since 2015 has screened 23 films exploring the role and challenges facing journalists.  Nearly 30 distinguished writers, editors, authors and First Amendment lawyers have taken part in the series, which includes post-film moderated discussions about the movies and journalism.

 

 

The New York Times 

             

• Assistant Managing Editor, New York, NY                       July, 2005 – February,2013 Masthead editor responsible for overseeing an annual newsroom budget of more than $230 million and administering a newsroom of more than 1,300 employees.  Among other things, point person for the newsroom on Labor relations, employee performance issues and liaison from the newsroom to corporate HR, Legal and Finance.

 

•  Associate Managing Editor, New York, NY              April, 1997 – July, 2005

        Responsible for newsroom administration, including personnel and budgetary matters.

 

 

• Deputy National Editor, New York, NY                             January, 1995 – April, 1997

       Number two editor on Times’s National desk, responsible for running a staff of 10 editors           and       more than 20 reporters based in Washington and 10 other National bureaus. Among      other things, directed coverage of the bombing of the Federal courthouse in Oklahoma City in        April, 1995, and the national Presidential election campaign of 1996.

 

• London Correspondent, London, England                 January, 1991 – January, 1995 

      Foreign correspondent based in London, covering the U.K., Ireland and Scandanavia.     Reported as well from Africa, the Middle East, Russia and  Eastern Europe, including the Balkans. 

 

• Chicago Bureau Chief, Chicago, Il  USA                  August, 1987 – January, 1991

      National correspondent based in Chicago, overseeing a bureau of four people and          responsible for coverage of news and enterprise in a 10-state region,

 

• Atlanta Bureau Chief, Atlanta, Ga  USA                  August, 1983 – August,1987

      National correspondent based in Atlanta, overseeing a bureau of four people and responsible     for coverage of news and enterprise in the Southern United States.  Coverage included          writing and reporting on the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

 

• Denver Bureau Chief, Denver, Co  USA                      April, 1981 – August, 1983

      National correspondent based in Denver, running a one-person bureau responsible for     coverage of news and enterprise in the RockyMountain region of the United States.

 

• Reporter, New York, New York, NY                           February, 1981—April, 1981

       Metro correspondent in New York, preparing for assignment to National staff.

 

 

Newsweek Magazine

 

• Moscow Bureau Chief, Moscow, USSR                    January, 1979 – February, 1981

       Foreign correspondent based in Moscow, running a one-person bureau responsible for coverage of the USSR.  From January to July, 1989, was engaged in Russian language         training in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Among other things, was the point person for the political            coverage of the 1980 Olympics games in Moscow.

 

• Middle East Bureau Chief, Cairo, Egypt                    July, 1976 – December, 1979

      Foreign correspondent based in Egypt, running a one and sometime two-person bureau responsible for coverage of the Arab Middle East, including Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia,         Syria and the Gulf states.  Coverage also included Iran.  Among others, coverage included        reporting and writing on Anwar Sadat’s 1977 peace initiative with Israel, and the civil war in         Lebanon.

 

• Miami Bureau Chief, Miami, Fl  USA                            September, 1974 – July, 1976

      National correspondent based in Miami, running a one-person bureau responsible for      coverage of Florida and the Caribbean region, including Central America. 

 

• Chicago Bureau Correspondent, Chicago, Il  USA        July, 1973 – September, 1974   

      One of four National correspondents based in Chicago, writing and reporting on the        Midwestern region of the United States.  

 

Detroit Free Press    

 

• Reporter, Detroit, Mi  USA                                             December, 1968 – July, 1973

      General assignment reporter at the Detroit Free Press, covering stories in the greater Detroit        area.

 

Suffolk Sun  

 

• Reporter, Deer Park, NY  USA                                      January, 1968 – June, 1968

      General assignment reporter at the Suffolk Sun, a daily newspaper in SuffolkCounty on New       York’s Long Island.

 

EDUCATION

 

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.

 -- B.A. in Journalism, December, 1967

 

 

  AWARDS

• Shared Pulitzer Prize in National reporting for The New York Times for coverage of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in January, 1986
• Shared Overseas Press Club award for Newsweek for coverage of the civil war in Lebanon during 1976/77
• Shared George L. Polk Award for National reporting for coverage of the shootings at Kent State University in May, 1970.
• Awarded honorary degree as Doctor of Humane Letters from Coker College in Hartsville, SC.  May, 2012.

 

                                   

 

INTERESTS

 

• Outside writing  -- Wrote screenplay for short feature film, “What About Sal? (2008).”

 

 

 

PERSONAL

 

• Three children.   Jordan Alison Kurella, of Columbus, Ohio; Lindsay Ella Schmidt, of New York, NY, and Peter William Schmidt of Brooklyn, NY

 

 

Degrees

• Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters
• Coker College, Hartsville, South Carolina
• Commencement speaker in May, 2012
• B.A. Journalism
• The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan