As the 2024 election cycle gets underway, Democrats and Republicans are farther apart ideologically than at any time in the past half century and distrust of the press continues to grow. How do editors produce news that people across the political spectrum will trust? What kind of community outreach is being done? What changes are newsroom leaders making – or need to be made -- to restore respect for credible, fact-based news in this critical moment?

Our Panelists:

Leroy Chapman Jr. is The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Editor-in-Chief. Previously, he was managing editor where he was in charge of reporting teams that cover state, local and federal government; politics; education; public safety; local, state and federal courts; transportation; immigration and breaking news. He has worked at the AJC since 2011.

Lee Ann Colacioppo is the editor of The Denver Post, a position she has held since 2016. She joined the editorial board in 2018 and in that role is a voting member of the board and frequently edits Denver Post editorials. Her first job at The Post was in 1999 as an assistant city editor, and since then she has held several editing positions, including city editor, investigations editor and news director. She previously worked at The Des Moines Register, Greenville (S.C.) News and Kingsport (Tenn.) Times-News. She is a Denver native.

Julie Makinen is editor-in-chief of The San Francisco Standard. Julie has more than two decades of experience as a writer, editor and foreign correspondent for publications including the L.A. Times, Washington Post and International New York Times. She served as executive editor of The Desert Sun in Palm Springs and California editor for the USA Today Network. She was a JSK Journalism Fellow at Stanford University and a staff member of the Stanford Graduate School of Business’ Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. 

Our moderator is Janine Zacharia, Carlos Kelly McClatchy Lecturer in the Department of Communication.