Jim Romenesko

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Jim Romenesko (born September 16, 1953) is an American journalist who runs the blog Romenesko on the website of the non-profit journalism school the Poynter Institute. The blog provides daily news, commentary, and insider information about journalism and media and has become popular among professionals in the industry.

Romenesko graduated from Marquette University and went to work for the Milwaukee Journal, serving as a police reporter for the newspaper. Initially repulsed by the sometimes grisly nature of his work, he would go on to publish the coroner's reports of unusual deaths in a book called Death Log (1981). From 1982 to 1995 he worked as an editor for Milwaukee Magazine, where he wrote features and a popular, award-winning column that covered the local media called "Pressroom Confidential". He went on to work as an Internet reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press from 1996 to 1999.

In 1989 to 1999, Romenesko ran a newsletter covering fanzines called Obscure Publications. In 1998 he began the website Obscure Store and Reading Room, which linked to odd news stories. In 1999 he began another website, this one covering the media and called Mediagossip.com. It proved a success and later that year he was hired by the Poyner Institute. Immediately popular, the Institute's website was getting 14,000 page views a day in 2000.

Romenesko currently lives in Evanston, Illinois.

[edit] References

Greg Mitchell, "Don't Mess With Jim", Editor & Publisher, Nov 25, 2002 p19.
Lori Robertson, "The Romenesko Factor", American Journalism Review, v22 i7 p28, September 2000.
Jack Shafer, "The Romenesko Effect: How a one-man Web site is improving journalism", Slate, April 18, 2005.
Hope Tarullo, "Jim Romenesko", Current Biography Yearbook, 2004.