I’m an assistant professor of electronic journalism at Montclair State University in northern New Jersey.

Prior to joining MSU, I was one of the founding editors of AOL’s Patch.com chain of local news Web sites. I launched and managed our first three sites and grew our network here in New Jersey to 85 statewide, with an average monthly traffic of some two million unique visitors.

Before joining Patch, I was the deputy online editor and later the online editor for the Associated Press for two years. I spent almost 10 years as a senior editor at MSNBC.com, joining them in Redmond, Washington, a month after the site launched in 1996. Whlie there I supervised the Web sites for all NBC News shows (Today, Dateline, Nightly News, etc.), spent two years as front page editor, and also worked as a special projects reporter. I was a founding editor of Court TV, where I was an on-air reporter (covering the Rodney King and William Kennedy Smith trials, among others) and later executive producer.

I began my journalism career with the Atlanta Constitution, where I covered energy and technology issues, and was editor of Atlanta’s daily legal newspaper, the Fulton County Daily Report, from 1986-1990.

I have an undergraduate and law degree from Emory University, and a master’s degree in Urban Studies from Georgia State University.

When not teaching or blogging about journalism, I enjoy photography, playing guitar or mandolin, and frequenting estate sales with my wife Linda.