Peter Dykstra joins Environmental Health News and The Daily Climate as publisher.
Award-winning journalist Peter Dykstra has been named publisher of Environmental Health News and The Daily Climate. EHN and TDC publish both original reporting and aggregation of environmental news from around the world on a daily basis. The two sites served up 17 million page views last year.
Contact
Pete Myers 434-220-0348 ext 411 jpmyers@ehsic.org
Peter Dykstra 404-272-3304 pdykstra@ehn.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 26, 2011
Award-winning journalist Peter Dykstra has been named publisher of Environmental Health News and The Daily Climate. EHN and TDC publish both original reporting and aggregation of environmental news from around the world on a daily basis. The two sites served up 17 million page views last year.
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As publisher, Dykstra will oversee the two sites, with a mandate to broaden their reader base and increase distribution of their enterprise reporting. This will better position EHN and TDC, which are foundation-funded,to provide access to quality journalism at a time of drastic cutbacks by traditional news organizations.
He joins a management team that includes:
- Marla Cone, editor in chief of Environmental Health News and a pioneer in environmental reporting during a 20-year career at the Los Angeles Times. Cone is the author of Silent Snow: The Slow Poisoning of the Arctic, an investigation of the high levels of toxic substances in both humans and animals in the Arctic;
- Douglas Fischer, a veteran newspaper reporter with the Oakland Tribune, San Jose Mercury and other newspapers, is editor of The Daily Climate. Fischer won an “award of merit” from the 2006 Grantham Award for environmental journalism.
- John Peterson “Pete” Myers is a Ph.D. biologist, founder of both websites and CEO of their parent organization, Environmental Health Sciences. He is the former Director of the W. Alton Jones Foundation and co-author of Our Stolen Future, an investigation of the risks posed by common, endocrine-disrupting contaminants.
“I’ve been an everyday reader of EHN and TDCsince they came on line,” Dykstra said. “It’s a place to find indispensable news you’d never see anywhere else, 365 days a year. I’m thrilled to join an accomplished team doing important work.”
Myers said that hiring a journalist with Dykstra’s expertise and knowledge of the media world will be a valuable asset in expanding the reach of EHN and TDC.
“Dykstra brings us seasoned experience in world-class journalism. We are delighted to have him join the team,”said Myers.
During a 17-year career at CNN, Dykstra was Executive Producer for science, environment, weather and technology coverage. He shared an Emmy award for CNN’s coverage of the 1993 Mississippi River floods; a Dupont-Columbia Award for the network’s reporting on the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami; and a Peabody Award for the 2005 coverage of Hurricane Katrina.
Prior to CNN, Dykstra was National Media Director for Greenpeace, setting up the organization’s U.S. media operations. In 2009, he launched Science Nation, a video news series, for the National Science Foundation. From 2009 to this year, he was a Deputy Director at The Pew Charitable Trusts, in charge of web, print and broadcast communications for the Pew Environment Group.
He serves on the Advisory Board for the Mother Nature Network, an online environmental news site, and the Ted Scripps Environmental Journalism Fellowships at the University of Colorado. Dykstra is a judge for the Oakes Award for Environmental Journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and he was a jurist for the National Academy of Sciences Communications Awards. He also served as a Board member of the Society of Environmental Journalists.
Dykstra has a Bachelor of Science degree in Communication from Boston University and lives in Conyers, Georgia. He and his wife Meryl have three grown children.
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