The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication seeks a professor of practice focused on driving revenue and audience growth across the news industry.

The Professor of Practice, News Industry Growth Strategy, will be housed within the school’s Knight Center for the Future of News and will ensure the Knight Center’s work reflects real-world media economics, operational realities and growth needs. This role connects research to industry sustainability.

Serving as a thought leader within the Knight Center’s Business Growth Lab and a strategic partner across the Center, this role helps shape project priorities, assess feasibility and define success in practice. We seek a practitioner with recent senior-level experience in a news or media organization who is comfortable moving between industry and academic settings.

The Professor of Practice will teach at least one course per year, assigned by the dean based on relevant expertise, and will perform internal and external faculty service.

This is a full-time, benefits-eligible, 12-month (not academic year) faculty appointment on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix Campus; this position holds the rank of professor of practice. It is grant-funded and not a tenure-track appointment.

Essential Duties

● Bring current industry insight into project direction and prioritization

● Assess relevance, feasibility and growth potential of Knight Center initiatives

● Lead within the Business Growth Lab while partnering across labs, including publishing, and program generation and management

● Build, consult and maintain relationships with publishers, creators and collaborators

● Translate industry needs into research questions and product strategy

● Teach and mentor students consistent with a Professor of Practice role

● Perform faculty service internally (e.g., committee assignments, student mentorship) and externally (e.g. professional workshops, contest judging, etc.)

● Represent the Center in industry-facing settings and convenings

About the Knight Center for the Future of News

The Knight Center for the Future of News at Arizona State University works to envision and accelerate a stronger future for the news industry. The Center operates as a public-interest research and development hub, combining applied research, experimentation, product development, training and knowledge-sharing.

The Knight Center’s work spans three interconnected areas: Journalism x Civics, Business Growth and AI Studio.

Across initiatives, the Center follows a shared execution model — Research, Test, Apply, Share and Train (RTAST) — ensuring ideas are grounded in evidence, tested with real partners, translated into usable outputs and supported through adoption and training.

The Center values adaptability, cross-functional collaboration and measurable impact. Team members are expected to work fluidly across labs and contribute to a culture that prioritizes clarity, experimentation and results.

Learn more at: https://cronkite.asu.edu/knightcenter

About the Cronkite School

The Cronkite School is widely recognized as the nation’s premier mass communication school, ranked a top collegiate program by the Broadcast Education Association for four consecutive years. Rooted in the time-honored values that characterize its namesake—accuracy, responsibility, integrity—the school fosters excellence and ethics among students as they master the professional skills required to succeed in the digital media world of today and tomorrow.

Based on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus in the heart of the nation’s fifth-largest city, the School is known for its hands-on, “teaching hospital” approach to learning led by a faculty composed of Pulitzer Prize-winning professional journalists, strategic communications leaders and world-class media scholars. More than 2,500 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students regularly lead the country in national competitions as they prepare for careers in journalism, PR, marketing, strategic media and related communication fields.

About Arizona State University

Arizona State University, ranked the No. 1 “Most Innovative School” in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for 10 years in succession, has forged the model for a New American University. Repeatedly ranked No. 1, ASU has topped more than 20 lists in the last three years: No. 1 in the U.S. for global impact (Times Higher Education) and No. 1 in the U.S. for sustainable practices (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education). ASU is a comprehensive public research institution, measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed; advancing research and discovery of public value; and assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it serves. ASU operates on the principles that learning is a personal and original journey for each student; that they thrive on experience and that the process of discovery cannot be bound by traditional academic disciplines. Through innovation and a commitment to accessibility, ASU has drawn pioneering researchers to its faculty even as it expands opportunities for qualified students, attracting some of the highest-quality students from all 50 states and more than 130 nations.

Minimum Qualifications

● Bachelor’s degree and 10+ years of professional experience in media growth, operations, strategy or related leadership roles

● Senior-level leadership experience in a news or media organization within the last seven years

Desired Qualifications

● MBA or other relevant graduate degree

● Demonstrated business leadership impact in digital or news environments

● Experience supporting independent publishers or creators

● Comfort working in academic environments

● Experience mentoring students or emerging professionals

Applicants will be asked to create or use an existing Interfolio Dossier to submit the following:

1. A cover letter stating qualifications
2. Curriculum vitae or resume
3. Contact information (name, address, email, telephone number) for three professional references

Successful candidates will demonstrate throughout their materials how their teaching, research, and service will contribute to the fulfillment of the ASU Charter.

The applicant’s name should appear in each uploaded file name. Cover letters may be addressed to the Search Committee Chair, Rebecca Blatt. Questions about the position should be directed to the search committee chair at: Rebecca.blatt@asu.edu.

Application deadline is June 7, 2026. Applications will continue to be accepted on a rolling basis for a reserve pool. Applications in the reserve pool may then be reviewed in the order in which they were received until the position is filled.