Press Release: Smolkin Succeeds Robertson as AJR Managing Editor   

November 15, 2005

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – American Journalism Review Managing Editor Lori Robertson is leaving the magazine this month to concentrate on freelance writing, and current AJR senior writer and part-time editor Rachel Smolkin is being promoted to Robertson's position.

AJR Editor and Senior Vice President Rem Rieder announced the changeover today. Robertson plans to spend several months in Latin America, traveling, writing and perfecting her Spanish before returning to the U.S. for freelance writing assignments. She will continue to contribute articles to AJR.

"Lori has done a wonderful job at AJR and will be missed," said Rieder. "It's hard to imagine the place without her. The good news is that Rachel is an excellent journalist who will do a terrific job as managing editor. And it's great that Lori will continue writing for AJR when she completes her Latin American adventure." AJR is published bimonthly by the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.

Robertson came to AJR as assistant managing editor in 1998 from the College's Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families, where she was administrative director and editor of the center's quarterly newsletter. She joined the center, a resource and training organization for journalists who cover children and family issues, when it was launched at Maryland in 1993. She is a native of Toronto, Ohio, and holds a bachelor's degree in communications from Duquesne University.

A frequent contributor to AJR while working at the Casey Center, Robertson has twice won national awards for her media criticism: The 2003 Bart Richards Award sponsored by Penn State University, and an honorable mention in the National Press Club's 2005 Arthur Rowse Award competition.

Smolkin, who started writing for the magazine in 2002, is a senior writer and part-time editor. In 2004, she won the Rowse Award for Press Criticism for her body of work in AJR. She previously worked at Scripps Howard News Service as a Washington correspondent for the Albuquerque Tribune and Birmingham Post-Herald and also covered education and minority issues for the national wire. She later worked for the Washington bureau of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Toledo Blade. A native of Houston, Smolkin is a 1996 graduate of Brown University with a degree in political science.

Contact: Frank Quine, vice president, AJR 301-405-2394
fquine@jmail.umd.edu