St. Louis Public Radio Executive Editor Shula Neuman was elected to the Board of Directors of The Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA). Neuman will represent large stations on the Board of Directors and was one of three new board members elected at the 2019 conference June 14-15.
At St. Louis Public Radio, Neuman is the Executive Editor of news and serves as part of station leadership. She’s previously worked as a reporter for Cleveland’s public radio station, WCPN, and as an editor for NPR in Washington, D.C
“I'm really excited about this opportunity,” Neuman said. “I've never run for any elected position before, so I was a bit shocked that I won. But I'm happy to have this opportunity. PMJA is at a turning point where it can provide a huge service to public radio journalists to raise the bar for the quality of journalism we do as a system. I'm very excited to be part of making that vision a reality.”
In addition to the Board of Directors election, the 2019 PMJA conference introduced two other changes to the organization.
PMJA altered newsroom criteria to better define small, medium and large newsrooms. As the large station representative, Neuman will oversee stations with 16 or more staff members. There are also representatives for small newsrooms and medium newsrooms on the seven-person board.
Formerly known as Public Radio News Directors Incorporated, the organization voted to change its name to better represent journalists in public media. This change was proposed last year and is believed to better serve all individuals working in public media newsrooms rather than just news directors. Some members were hesitant for this change because “radio” is no longer included in the name. Others argue that although radio is a valued platform, digital media and social media are changing the landscape of newsrooms, and the name of the organization should reflect that.
