It was the best of times, it was the worst of times — yada, yada, yada. In 1974, when I launched my journalism career (not counting my teenage years as a bicycle-pedaling paperboy), newspapers were profitable enterprises: They weren’t necessarily printing money with their offset presses, but like each issue in those pre-color days, they were reliably in the black. Every town had at least one newspaper — many cities had several — and so wanderlustful writers like me could count on finding work wherever we might land.
I didn’t know it at the time, but that was the heyday for the newspaper industry. And while we hacks bitched about stingy publishers, they usually were committed to at least a modicum of public-service journalism. (Admittedly, I did work for a few stinkers — like the publisher at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal who hung a Lester Maddox axe handle on the wall above his desk.)
Nutshell Narrative
After graduating from the University of Texas in 1974, I worked as a newspaper reporter and editor in Texas, Arizona and Virginia for more than two decades (with one detour: Halfway through that stint, I took a two-year break from journalism as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco). I started my career as the editor (actually, the only news staffer) at a rural weekly north of Austin. After a circuitous route, I was hired 15 years later as the state editor at the Austin American-Statesman. At the dawn of the personal computer and internet revolution in the late ’80s, I got deep into technology — especially data research for journalists.
In 1997, I accepted a full-time position on the mass comm faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University under the mistaken impression I’d get summers off. It was a culture shock: I used to think newsrooms were inefficient and dysfunctional until I started attending faculty meetings. Most of my academic colleagues didn’t know what to make of me — a hack with no advanced degree. I recall someone whispering, “He must be our web monkey.” But reporters are quick studies, have abundant stamina and are fearless about venturing into unfamiliar territory. I volunteered to teach courses for which my only qualification was a commitment to stay a chapter ahead of the students.
I expected that VCU officials would give me the boot after a few years and that I’d be scurrying back to the newsroom. But I managed to get tenure — a fortunate turn because the news industry was imploding behind me. So teaching became my second career (though I kept my journalism skills sharp and my bylines fresh by working summers and part-time at the Charlotte Observer, Richmond Free Press and other news organizations).
At VCU, I taught a range of courses — skills and theory, small seminars and large lectures, in person and online, from undergrad to Ph.D. level. In my signature course, called Capital News Service, students produced stories, photos and other content for the Associated Press and news outlets across Virginia. Under my direction, students won more than 65 local, regional and national awards for their reporting. Students expressed appreciation for my accessibility, humor and practical approach to coursework. (As a champion of transparency and the right to know, I took the revolutionary step of publicly posting my course evaluations, grade distributions and other metrics. This did not set a trend.)
I won teaching awards from VCU and the Society of Professional Journalists, as well as a Fulbright grant to teach journalism in China and a fellowship to train journalists in Ukraine. Through the International Center for Journalists, I conducted workshops on investigative reporting in the U.S. and abroad. (My work didn’t always go smoothly: I got kicked off China’s social media for using an image of the Tiananmen Square Tank Man as my avatar; and I was arrested and kicked out of Vietnam on charges of practicing journalism without a license.)
I retired from VCU after the Spring 2020 semester. I have stayed active as a journalist — freelancing for AARP, Cardinal News, Virginia Mercury, The Conversation and other platforms and working with news professionals abroad as a Fulbright Specialist. I also serve in leadership roles with organizations such as the SPJ Virginia Pro Chapter, the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, the Virginia Local News Project and the Fulbright Association’s Central Virginia Chapter.
Print-friendly Résumé and Curriculum Vitae
Back when Elon Musk seemed normal (before the chain saw, Nazi salute and other odd behavior), I admired the world’s richest person for distilling his credentials into a one-page résumé. I’m not a billionaire, but I followed his lead:
Brevity isn’t exactly prioritized in academia, where Ph.D. translates as “pile higher and deeper.” But from my years at VCU, I have developed an expanded CV (10 pages max; I’m not a sadist):
Jeff South 