The 2027 Sulzberger Fellows
Meet the 2027 Sulzberger Fellows
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One of the great joys of my work is bringing together leaders from some of the top journalism and media organizations around the world and watching them go from strangers working on their own to a tight-knit group of colleagues supporting each other's leadership growth and strategies, not only for the 20 weeks of the program but for the rest of their careers.
So this week, instead of a framework, some news. In January, these 32 journalism leaders from nine countries will come together as the 2027 Cohort of the Sulzberger Executive Leadership Program at Columbia Journalism School. Read the official announcement from Columbia Journalism School here.
They lead newsrooms, products, and teams at The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, Nikkei, Tamedia, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, FUNKE Media Group, Ukrainska Pravda, La Nación, 60 Minutes Australia, Oregon Public Broadcasting, KQED, and public media stations across the United States, and a few of them are founders building new ventures from scratch. Their titles run from editor-in-chief and general manager to director of technology, founder, and editorial director of A.I. initiatives, which tells you something about what leading a journalism organization means today.
What They'll Do Together
Each fellow brings a project that is central to their organization's strategy into the program and refines it alongside peers facing the same pressures. The cohort begins with two weeks in residence at Columbia in January, meets weekly online through the spring, and returns to New York in May for commencement week.
Leading journalism through this much change means learning to design two things at once: the strategy, which is where the organization should go and why, and the culture, which is how the team works together to get there and how it finds out where to go next. A plan without a culture that can carry it will fail. A close team without a concrete strategic destination will also fail. So the program teaches both together. Over twenty weeks, these 32 fellows will help each other develop the strategy their organization needs to sustain impactful journalism, and build a culture of innovation that can keep refining it as the world changes. If you want the longer version of that idea, I drew it last week as
Meet The 2027 Fellows
- Andrey Boborykin, Executive Director, Ukrainska Pravda
- MacGregor Campbell, Director of Content Innovation, Oregon Public Broadcasting
- Jason Chen, Editorial Director, Wirecutter
- Josua Diggelmann, Director, Insights & Data Intelligence, Tamedia
- Spencer Dukoff, Director, Off-Platform Content & Strategy, Forbes
- Nancy Farghalli, Executive Producer of Shows, Marketplace
- Gillian Flaccus, News Director, Oregon Public Broadcasting
- Bryan Flaherty, Managing Editor, Content & Off-Platform Strategy, The Washington Post
- Simon Frantz, Managing Editor, Quanta Magazine
- Kosei Fukao, Editor, Automotive News, Nikkei
- Côme Gallet, Editorial Manager, 20 Minutes (French-speaking Switzerland)
- Carsten Gross, Managing Director, Digital Publishing, FUNKE Media Group
- Jemma Hovance, Director of Technology, KUOW
- Erika Howard, Director, Impact Strategy and External Relations, FRONTLINE (PBS)
- Erika Kelly, Acting Managing Editor, News and Enterprise, KQED
- Isaac Kestenbaum, Director, Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, Maine College of Art & Design
- Fabrice Le Lous, Editor-in-Chief, La Nación (Costa Rica)
- Gabe Lerner, Founder and CEO, Democracy Notes
- Jan Ludwig, Chapter Lead, OSINT, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
- Adélaïde Mangin, Director, Digital Desk, Tamedia
- Álvaro Mazariegos, Director of Audience Development and GEO, El Español
- Maya Neria, Product Director, News Product, The New York Times
- Efe Obaigbena, Operations & Commercial Director, ARISE Global Media
- Akiko Ono, Director of Marketing and Promotion, Nikkei
- Erin Perry, Editor-in-Chief, Outlier Media
- Erika Pulley-Hayes, General Manager, WAMU
- Sara Roth, Executive Editor, Digital Programming, Oregon Public Broadcasting
- Zach Seward, Editorial Director of A.I. Initiatives, The New York Times
- Kirsty Thomson, Head of Longform Current Affairs and Investigations and Executive Producer, 60 Minutes Australia, Nine
- Ingo von Gossler, Release Train Engineer and Innovation Team Lead, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
- Kaila White, Founding Editor, Reverb, MPR News
- Ariel Zirulnick, Founder, The Bell
Scroll below for more about each fellow and the strategic project they will be accelerating through the program:
This Could Be You Next Year
The next Sulzberger cohort will run from January to May 2028. Sign up for the mailing list to be the first to know when applications open.
Next Week
Back to the leadership methodology. How I run a culture audit for a leadership team, one person at a time, with no one to blame and nothing to hide: The Blameless Cultural Audit.
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About This Newsletter
The Idea Bucket is a weekly newsletter and archive featuring one visual framework, supporting one act of leadership, that brings you one step closer to building a culture of innovation.
It’s written by Corey Ford — executive coach, strategic advisor, and founder of Point C, where he helps founders, CEOs, and executives clarify their visions, lead cultures of innovation, and navigate their next leadership chapters.
Want 1:1 executive coaching on this framework or others? Book your first coaching session. It's on me.
