Carr Van Anda Symposium

Presented by the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism

October 19, 2021

Ohio native and former Ohio University student Carr Van Anda was managing editor of The New York Times from 1904-1925. He used his curiosity about science and the world plus his writing and editing abilities to make The New York Times the international newspaper it is today.

9- 9:30 a.m.: A Conversation with Carr Van Anda

Carr Van Anda was born in Georgetown, Ohio, in 1864. His interest in newspapers began at age 6 when he shared with family a "newspaper" collection of clippings he had gathered. As a teenager, Van Anda bought his own printing press and produced The Boys' Gazette in Wapakoneta after his family moved there. He was a student at Ohio University for two years where he studied mathematics and physics. Van Anda worked in printing and reporting at newspapers in Wapakoneta, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Baltimore. At age 24, he arrived in New York to work for Charles A. Dana, editor at The Sun. In 1904, Adolph S. Ochs hired Van Anda as managing editor for The New York Times, where Van Anda spent the remainder of his career. His abilities and work ethic turned The Times into an international newspaper of record with its reporting on the sinking of the Titanic, World War I and the technological developments that occurred after the Industrial Revolution. Van Anda embraced science and technology; The Times became the first American newspaper to use telegraph reports from Europe and to cover science, exploration and discoveries on a regular basis. He decoded Egyptian hieroglyphics after the discovery of King Tut's tomb and found a mathematical error that Albert Einstein made while giving a lecture at Princeton University on his Theory of Relativity. After being made aware of the error, Einstein responded: "Yes, Mr. Van Anda is right. I made a slip in transcribing the equation on the board." During Van Anda's tenure, The Times received in 1918 the first of its 153 Pulitzer Prizes. The 1918 award was for Public Service for coverage of World War I. Van Anda was described by his Times colleagues this way: "A master in the gathering and presentation of news, he stood in the front rank of the working newspaper men of his time. His abilities found full scope in carrying out The Times' avowed purpose to gather and publish 'All the News That's Fit to Print' — a purpose declared by Adolph S. Ochs when he became publisher of this newspaper in 1896."  Biographical information is courtesy of The New York Times.

9:30-10:20 a.m.: Tut, the Titanic and the Theory of Relativity: Lessons from the Famously Unknown Carr V. Van Anda

Wafa Unus - Assistant Professor, Fitchburg State University

Wafa Unus is an assistant professor of journalism at Fitchburg State University in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, where she also advises FSU’s student-run newspaper, The Point. Unus is the author of “A Newsman in the Nixon White House: The Enduring Conflict between Journalistic Truth and Presidential Image.” Her research interests include journalism history and the impact of pivotal figures in journalism that have contributed to contemporary practice, as well as local journalism, news deserts and their impact on civic engagement. She is currently working on a book manuscript on Carr Van Anda (from which this presentation is derived) and research on the role of university news publications in filling gaps within emerging and existing news deserts. 

10:30-11:50 a.m.: Building the Morgue

Jeff Roth, caretaker and researcher of archives, The New York Times

In 1907, Carr Van Anda formally codified the paper's original "morgue," the archive that houses historical news clippings and photographic prints, along with a book and periodicals library, microfilm records and other archival material. For nearly 30 years, Roth has staffed and run the clippings and picture morgues, inarguably the most important and unique media company archive in the world.

3:05-4:25 p.m.: Keynote address and award presentation 

John Quiñones - host and correspondent, ABC 20/20, 2020 Carr Van Anda Award recipient
@JohnQABC

John Quiñones is the anchor of “What Would You Do?,” one of the highest-rated newsmagazine franchises of recent years. During his almost 40-year tenure at ABC News, he has reported extensively for all programs and platforms and served as anchor of “Primetime.”

During the 1980s, he spent nearly a decade in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama reporting for “World News Tonight.” Other stories originating from Central America include political and economic turmoil in Argentina and civil war in El Salvador.

Awards include: CINE Award for a report about suicide bombers, American Latino Media Arts Award for ABC News Special “Latin Beat,” George Foster Peabody award for ABC News’ global Millennium broadcast, Gabriel Award for following a young man to Colombia as he made an emotional journey to reunite with his birth mother after two decades, Ark Trust Wildlife Award and Emmy for covering the Congo virgin rainforest, an Emmy for a look at the Yanomamo Indians, an Emmy for the ABC documentary “Burning Questions — The Poisoning of America,” World Hunger Media Award and citation from the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards for “To Save the Children,” and First Prize in International Reporting and Robert F. Kennedy Prize for “Modern Slavery -- Children Sugar Cane Cutters in the Dominican Republic.”

Before joining ABC News, Quiñones was a reporter with WBBM-TV in Chicago. He won two Emmy Awards for his 1980 reporting on the plight of Mexicans who moved to the U.S. from 1975 to 1978.

Quiñones received a Bachelor of Arts in speech communications from St. Mary's University, San Antonio, Texas. He received a master's from the Columbia School of Journalism. Quiñones has received two honorary degrees: in 2016 he received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Utah Valley University and in 2014 a Doctor of Letters degree from Davis & Elkins College.

In 2019, Quiñones received the Radio Television Digital News Association’s John F. Hogan Distinguished Service Award.

Quiñones’ appearance is sponsored by the Ohio University Society of Professional Journalists, OHIO Talks, Ohio University President’s Office, E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University Senate Appropriations Committee, Scripps Diversity Committee, Black Student Cultural Programming Board, Ohio University Multicultural Center and Ohio University Division of Student Affairs.