Miami (March 9, 2011) – The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has named Michael Maness vice president of its Journalism and Media Innovation program. Maness joins Knight after more than three years as Gannett’s vice president of innovation and design.

“Along with many others, we believe the future of news is digital but no one knows exactly how. Knight Foundation’s greatest contribution to this stage of development is to be open to many ideas, fund many experiments in delivering news and information to communities and be intentional about learning what works,” said Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO of Knight Foundation. “Michael Maness has led innovation at one of the largest media companies in the country.  He has a sense of what’s next and what innovations can survive in the marketplace. He has made a career of both being open to innovation and tough-minded about learning, the perfect combination for our program.”

“Having Michael join Knight’s team is a huge win not only for the foundation, but for the future of journalism,” added Paul Steiger, a Knight Foundation trustee, former managing editor of the Wall Street Journal and now CEO and president of ProPublica.

“Working on innovation and design at Gannett was a great experience, and I’ll be forever grateful for it,” said Maness.  “Helping lead innovation for the entire journalism and media innovation field is simply an irresistible opportunity.”

Maness will succeed Eric Newton who will become senior advisor to the president. “Knight Foundation and the journalism field have benefitted enormously from Eric Newton’s leadership,” said Ibargüen. “Moving forward he will play a key role in pursuing strategic partnerships and attracting new ideas.” (See related release at kflinks.com/release-en.)

Maness has been vice president of innovation and design for Gannett for the past three and a half years. During his tenure, he led the creation of an innovation process based on human-centered design and launched multiple new brands. Previously, he served as vice president of strategic planning for Gannett’s newspaper division. Maness also served as a member of an advisory team, evaluating employee ideas during this time.

Prior to these positions, he helped launch and managed several local news sites across the company.  During his tenure, Maness developed the industry’s first daily video newscast on the Web done without a television partner, created online marketing databases and redesigned sites that won several awards for journalism and advertising. He was named to the Newspaper Association of America’s list of “20 under 40” and was a co-winner in 2007 of the Chairman’s Special Achievement Award at Gannett.

Before joining Gannett, Maness was an analyst and media consultant, a campaign manager and a marketing account executive. He is a graduate of Northwestern University.

Maness has been a member of Knight Foundation’s journalism advisory committee for the past four years.

During the last five years, Knight Foundation has invested more than $100 million in a multi-faceted Media Innovation Initiative. Its projects address media innovation on various levels, including national media policy, technology innovation, public media transformation and the evolution of the World Wide Web. Programs such as the Knight News Challenge, a media innovation contest, have to date spawned hundreds of community media experiments and other projects.

The foundation works with a wide cross section of innovators and leaders. They range from young entrepreneurs and new online news operations to established news organizations, universities and experts like Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote informed and engaged communities and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

Contact: Marc Fest, Vice President of Communications, Knight Foundation, 305-908-2677; [email protected]