Emily Bell, the founder director of the Tow Centre for digital journalism at New York’s Columbia university, has been chosen as the guest speaker for the 2015 Hugh Cudlipp lecture.
“It is a great and humbling honour to be asked to deliver the Cudlipp lecture,” said Bell. “The Cudlipp tradition is an important part of the rich, robust and innovative soul of British journalism.”
Bell, the former editor-in-chief of the Guardian’s websites and director of digital content, led the strategy to make the Guardian an open platform for journalism. She is a member of the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian and the Observer.
Two weeks ago, she gave a riveting Reuters memorial lecture, Silicon Valley and journalism: make up or break up?
The Cudlipp lecture is sponsored by the Daily Mirror, and its editor-in-chief, Lloyd Embley, called Bell “one of the leading lights in digital journalism.” He said the Mirror “has been making great strides online, so it’ll be enlightening to hear her speech.”
It will be held at the London College of Communication, part of the London’s university of the arts, on 26 January 2015. Pro vice-chancellor Natalie Brett said: “At a time when the media industry is being transformed by digital, Emily Bell’s thoughts and research on its impact on the business of journalism and news output will be seminal, not least because she was one of the digital pioneers in the UK at the Guardian.”
Now in its 12th year, the annual Hugh Cudlipp lecture – named in memory of the late Lord Cudlipp, editorial director of the Daily Mirror – also serves as a platform for the Hugh Cudlipp award, which is given to a journalism student who has made an outstanding contribution to the trade.
The Cudlipp Trust, the college and the Mirror look forward to receiving entries for this year’s prize of £2,000. The criteria have been widened this year to include video journalism. The winner will be announced at the lecture.
