SCILS Hires First Pulitzer Prize Winning Instructor
January 29, 2009  NEW BRUNSWICK -- The Department of Journalism and Media Studies at SCILS has hired its first Pulitzer Prize-winning lecturer, Robert Montemayor, to teach introductory news writing and reporting.
Montemayor is a veteran marketing executive, consultant, journalist, and author who brings more than 35 years of media experience to Rutgers. After graduating from UCLA with a master’s in business administration, Montemayor worked in virtually all aspects of the business side of media, including advertising, marketing, distribution, and operations. He has served as director of circulation marketing at The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, as well as Senior Vice President of Consumer Marketing at McGraw-Hill. Montemayor said he will bring his business insights into the classroom to train the next generation of journalists. “The industry is changing; it’s being forced to change,” he said. Montemayor will prompt students to think of journalistic coverage in terms of audiences, markets, and new business models such as nonprofit news reporting. “If you have something to write, then you have to find the audience that’s willing to ‘buy’ it. “I’m just as much a businessman as I am a journalist,” Montemayor said. “I am always thinking about how can I sell this, what’s the value, how do I put a price on it? Marketers aren’t journalists, but both must identify what’s compelling about a story or a product.” Montemayor will teach News Reporting and Writing (324) and Writing for the Print Media (325). “We are in the unique position at Rutgers in exposing our beginning writing students to a highly accomplished Pulitzer Prize winner,” said SCILS Dean Jorge Reina Schement. “Robert brings extensive writing and editing experience. Having worked on the business side of media, he understands the economic and commercial context in which media function. This gives him a far broader perspective than that encountered in most beginning writing classes.” Montemayor began his journalism career in 1975 at The Dallas Times Herald. In 1984, he was part of a team at the Los Angeles Times that won the Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service. Montemayor penned three stories and co-authored the lead story in the 21-part series, which documented the complex story of Latinos in Southern California. “It was unprecedented at that time,” Montemayor said. “We were tired of writing stereotypical stories … We talked about religion and culture and quinceañeras and things that were very much a part of our social fabric, our cultural fabric.” It is important in an era of increasingly diversified media, Montemayor said, to train journalism students to do similar in-depth reporting that helps people understand one another. The skills used in that type of reporting, coincidentally, are similar to skills he nurtured in the business world, like coaxing people to discuss sensitive topics and making quick decisions under pressure. “Being able to read people, to read situations … all of that is central to my teaching philosophy, which is critical thinking,” Montemayor said. “It’s a rule I will not retreat from.” Montemayor lives in Bloomfield, N.J., and is married to Virginia Lujano. CONTACT: Ashanti M. Alvarez, Director of Public Communications 732-932-7500, ext. 8012 ashanti@rutgers.edu
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