Thought Leader: Michael Skoler

Michael Skoler is vice president of Interactive at Public Radio International (PRI) in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He brings people, ideas and funding together to launch new media ventures that entice, engage and include the public. Skoler joined PRI after a year studying unconventional business models for news while he was a 2009-10 Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow at the Missouri School of Journalism.

Skoler entered journalism after leaving the French wine business and buying a book titled How to Be a Freelance Writer. His work in print, radio, television and the Web has received numerous honors including the duPont-Columbia Silver Baton, the Robert Kennedy F. Memorial Award, and a Nieman fellowship.

Skoler has written for magazines ranging from Glamour and Reader's Digest to American Health and Medical World News. He produced a daily, syndicated radio show on science for CBS, reported for WGBH-TV in Boston and wrote for the popular Let's Go budget travel guides. He spent a decade at National Public Radio, first as a science editor and correspondent and then as a foreign correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya, where he covered Mandela's election in South Africa, the Rwandan genocide, Sudan and other stories.

In 1999, Skoler earned an MBA at the University of Virginia as a Frank Batten Media Fellow and joined McKinsey and Company as a management consultant serving media and technology companies.

In 2003, he became managing director of news for American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio. There, he created the Public Insight Network as a new way for newsrooms to partner with the audience on defining stories, newsgathering and production. The network has over 100,000 citizen sources and is being used by print, broadcast and online newsrooms across the country.

In 2006, Skoler became the founding executive director of the Center for Innovation in Journalism at American Public Media. Skoler was executive producer of the audience-designed show, In The Loop, and led the creation of 4 popular online news games that tap public knowledge. The most recent game, Budget Hero, was released for the 2008 election.

Skoler left the Center in July 2008 to take a one-year family sabbatical in southern Mexico. He has taught and lectured on journalism in the U.S., Europe and Africa.

Michael has written the essay, The Value of Money as part of the IVOH Voices & Values of Journalism Project - listen to and read the entire collection of essays here.

Michael's recent work and related links:

• Where Journalism Went Wrong, Harvard

• Creating a New Journalism of Partnership, Kettering Review, page 36.