In summary
Marcia Parker, the publisher and COO of CALmatters, was honored this month at the 140th Annual Winter Meeting of the California Press Foundation with the Jack Bates award.
Marcia Parker, the publisher and COO of CALmatters, was honored this month at the 140th Annual Winter Meeting of the California Press Foundation with the Jack Bates award. Named after the executive director of the California News Publishers Association, this award is given to “an individual for distinguished service to the California Press through effective leadership in addressing newspaper challenges and assisting journalism education.” Previous award winners include Richard Cameron, a journalism professor at Cerritos College, and Karlene Goller when she was the deputy general counsel at the Los Angeles Times..
Marcia joined CALmatters in February to help our nonprofit news organization build a sustainable business model. When she’s not raising money, she’s working with our 137 media partners, doing community outreach across the state and much more. Marcia recently also accepted an invitation to join the board of the Institute for Nonprofit News.
Despite our crazy schedules at CALmatters, Marcia manages to find time to mentor journalists, advise media startups through the Matter accelerator, lecture on innovation ot Northwestern University’s San Francisco campus and be actively involved with the Online News Association.
After a long career in newspapers in many decision-making roles, including as managing editor of the Contra Costa Times, she taught at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism for several years and ran summer professional development programs for California newspapers and training programs for high school journalism teachers. She later managed AOL’s Patch hyperlocal news sites on the West Coast.