To coordinate coverage of Georgia Tech’s many activities, accomplishments and research outcomes, Institute Communications has established an editorial board. Using Georgia Tech’s strategic plan as a guide, the board identifies and assigns stories as well as coordinates coverage and how information will be shared internally and externally.

“The editorial board represents a product of collaboration by campus communicators and is based on a common need to define and coordinate Institute and unit-level initiatives,” said Vice President of Institute Communications Michael Warden. 

Newsworthy information or ideas should initially be submitted through the college, school or unit’s designated communicator. If there is no communicator serving a specific area, ideas from leadership, campus communicators, faculty, staff and other sources may be submitted to the board through the News and Campus communications staff or by using an online submission form designed to facilitate the review of the information. 

The editorial board reviews potential story ideas to determine the primary target audience and whether or not a request will be handled at the Institute level. For example, there may be stories that fall outside the Institute’s strategic plan or strategic communications plan. In these cases, the board will provide advice and counsel on how a unit, department or individual can best achieve their communication goal. While ideas or achievements may not lend themselves to an external press release, the information may be used in internal communication forums or passed along to the leadership communications team for use in backgrounders, speech notes, etc.

Although all ideas will be evaluated and considered, staffing levels, workloads, timeliness and other factors will require the board to prioritize stories/ideas that are moved forward.

The establishment of the editorial board does not prohibit individual units from taking action on their own in terms of preparing news for sharing internally and externally. The board’s focus is to coordinate and leverage information sharing when possible. This is particularly important when releasing external news that should be coordinated through the media relations team.

The editorial board is comprised of the following professionals who have a variety of backgrounds that include print and broadcast journalism, internal communications, research communications, crisis communications and public affairs: Amelia Gambino, assistant vice president, and Lisa Grovenstein, senior director of News & Campus Communications; Michael Hagearty, campus news and events director; John Toon, research news director; and Matt Nagel, media relations and issues management director. With this broad range of experience, the board can evaluate the news potential of an idea or story and brainstorm different approaches on how the information can most effectively be covered and shared. 

The editorial board convenes several times a week to discuss potential stories, events, etc., for coverage evaluation and assignment to the appropriate team. Campus communicators are invited to call in with pitches/ideas during the group’s Wednesday morning meetings or to simply be a part of the discussions.

The form is available in the Institute Communications toolbox at the following link: http://www.gatech.edu/comm/toolbox/media.html. After logging in, click on “media relations” found under the Communications Toolbox heading. The submission form can be found at the bottom of the page under the “Editorial Board” heading.