Categories: OLD Media Moves

Biz journalist named to company board

Business journalistÂ Jon Delano has been named to the Pennsylvania American Water board of directors, according to a release.

Delano is a journalist for KDKA-TV, serving as the station’s money and politics editor, and he is a columnist for the Pittsburgh Business Times and a contributor for Pittsburgh Magazine. He is also an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s H. John Heinz School of Public Policy & Management.

“As a member of our board of directors, Jon’s talents and experience will help provide stewardship and oversight of management and operations to ensure that the company is properly aligned with its mission of providing high- quality and reliable water service,” said Kathy Pape, president of Pennsylvania American Water, in a statement. “Jon has a reputation throughout Pennsylvania for even-handed analysis of political and governmental issues, and we look forward to working with him.”

Prior to Delano’s journalism career, he served Congressman Doug Walgren as chief of staff from 1977 to 1991. His Washington experience led to his appointment in 1995 at Carnegie Mellon University.

Read more here. Anybody else know of any instances of business journalists on company boards?

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

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View Comments

Jack Roberts says:
January 18, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Isn't there a problem here? How can a journalist, especially a business journalist, serve on the board of the publicly owned company, especially one in his market where he might have to report on it. In this case, there is probably a good chance that this company also makes political contributions, so there is a conflict with his political reporting. And, I'm sure that to be on the board, he must own stock in the company, another ethics violation if he has to cover the company. This is an obvious call and he should have known better. And what if there is a big water main break, or some kind of accident that where the public and workers are hurt -- won't his reports or comments be more than a bit tainted, and won't the station's credibility be hurt knowing that one of its own sits on this company's board.