Eric Newton

Who is Eric Newton?

Eric Newton is an American journalist and Senior Adviser to the President at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, an organization created by one of the founding families behind the Knight Ridder newspaper group.

Newton earned a B.A. in journalism from San Francisco State University in 1979 and his master's degree in international studies from the University of Birmingham.

He joined the Oakland Tribune as a copy boy in 1977. Turned down for a job as a reporter there in 1979, he edited newspapers in Mill Valley and Richmond before returning to the Tribune as a copy editor in 1984. Within six years he was running the Tribune newsroom.

Newton was managing editor of the Tribune when it won more than 150 awards, including a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. He has since been a Pulitzer Prize juror four times and has written a book on Pulitzer Prize-winning photography.

In 1992, Newton launched the Pacific Coast Center for the Freedom Forum. In 1994, he was founding managing editor for the Newseum, responsible for its story line and content. For four years, from the opening of the original Newseum in 1997 until 2000, he hosted programs in the Newseum's broadcast studio and created dozens of traveling exhibits. Newton joined Knight Foundation in June 2001 as a journalism program director. Later he became VP, Journalism Program. In 2011, he because Senior Adviser to the President.