Announcing the 2017 Manship Prize Recipient Aron Pilhofer

The Manship School is pleased to announce that Aron Pilhofer, one of the world’s most respected experts in the use of digital tools for journalism, has been selected to receive the 2017 Manship Prize.   

The award recognizes journalists and other professionals whose innovative work in or through media has advanced citizens’ better understanding of and response to challenges in the public arena.  

Mr. Pilhofer has helped shape the technical evolution of digital journalism and, after a distinguished career, currently holds the James B. Steele Chair in Journalism Innovation at Temple University.  His focus there is new business models, digital transformation and innovation in news. 

Prior to joining Temple’s faculty, he was Executive Editor, Digital and interim Chief Digital Officer at the Guardian in London.  He oversaw visual journalism and led the Guardian’s 200-person product, technology, UX and engineering teams.  Prior to that, he was Associate Managing Editor for Digital Strategy and editor of Interactive News at the New York Times, helping develop and execute the newsroom’s approach to technology, new products, analytics, interactives and social media.  

He has also been database editor at the Center for Public Integrity in Washington and on the national training staff of Investigative Reporters and Editors.

Aron Pilhofer also co-founded two startups: DocumentCloud.org in 2009, which makes source documents easier for journalists to find, search, analyze and share online and is currently used by more than 1500 newsrooms worldwide; and Hacks & Hackers, also founded in 2009, a grassroots journalism organization with worldwide membership that brings journalists and technologists together to rethink the future of news and information.

The Manship Prize, begun in 1998, is funded by an endowment from the Douglas L. Manship family.  Previous winners include the following:

  • Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg News 
  • Anthony Ridder, chair and CEO of Knight-Ridder 
  • Charles Benton, chair and CEO of Benton Foundation
  • Berry Cooper, founder of BlackVoices.com
  • Reid Ashe, COO of Media General 
  • Brian Lamb, founder of C-SPAN 
  • The Times-Picayune and WWL-TV for respective coverage of Hurricane Katrina
  • Joe Trippi, political strategist 
  • Bill Adair, editor, PolitiFact
  • Jan Shaffer, J-Lab
  • Investigative News Network
  • Dan Gilmoor, digital journalism thinker

 

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