Alex S. Jones (born November 19, 1946) is an American journalist who was director of the
Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy
The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy is a Harvard Kennedy School research center that explores the intersection and impact of media, politics and public policy in theory and practice.
Among other activities, the center or ...
at
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
's
John F. Kennedy School of Government
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
from July 1, 2000 until June 2015. He won a
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
for journalism in 1987.
["Specialized Reporting"]
The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved October 30, 2013.
Early years and career
Jones covered the newspaper industry for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' from 1983 until 1992. His prize-winning story "The Fall of the House of Bingham" concerned events that ended in 1986 with the sale of
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
media—two newspapers and three broadcast stations—after 15 years of management by
Barry Bingham, Jr.
George Barry Bingham Jr. (September 23, 1933 – April 3, 2006 in Louisville, Kentucky) was an American newspaper publisher and television and radio executive. He was the third and last generation of the Bingham family that controlled Louisville' ...
The following year Jones won the annual
Pulitzer Prize for Specialized Reporting
The Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting was presented from 1991 to 2006 for a distinguished example of beat reporting characterized by sustained and knowledgeable coverage of a particular subject or activity.
From 1985 to 1990 it was known as the ...
(predecessor of the
Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting
The Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting was presented from 1991 to 2006 for a distinguished example of beat reporting characterized by sustained and knowledgeable coverage of a particular subject or activity.
From 1985 to 1990 it was known as the ...
), recognizing that work as "a skillful and sensitive report of a powerful newspaper family's bickering and how it led to the sale of a famed media empire."
He and his wife
Susan E. Tifft (1951–2010) wrote long books about two newspaper dynasties, beginning with the Binghams in 1991 and focusing on
Barry Bingham, Sr.
George Barry Bingham Sr. (February 10, 1906 – August 15, 1988) was the patriarch of a family that dominated local media in Louisville for several decades in the 20th century.
Family and career
George Barry Bingham Sr. was born on February 10 ...
, ''The Patriarch: The Rise and Fall of the Bingham Dynasty'' (Summit Books, 574pp). A review in the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' called it "the best kind of family history—one so packed with archival fact and telling anecdote that a reader can be excused for believing that at times he or she understands the Binghams far better than they seem to have understood themselves."
Jones and Tifft followed ''The Dynasty'' with a 1999 book about the history of
Adolph S. Ochs
Adolph Simon Ochs (March 12, 1858 – April 8, 1935) was an American newspaper publisher and former owner of ''The New York Times'' and ''The Chattanooga Times'' (now the ''Chattanooga Times Free Press'').
Early life and career
Ochs was born t ...
and his descendants, ''The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind the New York Times'' (Little, Brown, 870pp).
[ The book was a finalist for the ]National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".[Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...]
magazine as one of the five best nonfiction books of that year.
Jones's third book, '' Losing the News: The Future of the News That Feeds Democracy'' (Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, 2009, 234pp) explored the changing U.S. media landscape and its implications for American democracy. Writing for the Nieman Reports
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University is the primary journalism institution at Harvard. It was founded in February 1938 as the result of a $1.4 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman, the widow of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of ...
, Jones asserted that despite market pressures, "authentic journalistic objectivity" must remain at the center of the future of news reporting. Writing for ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', Sir Harold Evans
Sir Harold Matthew Evans (28 June 192823 September 2020) was a British-American journalist and writer. In his career in his native Britain, he was editor of ''The Sunday Times'' from 1967 to 1981, and its sister title ''The Times'' for a year f ...
, former editor of the Sunday Times of London, called Jones a "bringer of light in the encircling gloom."
From 1995 until 1997 Jones was host of NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
's '' On the Media'', and from 1996 until 2003 he was executive editor and host of PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
's ''Media Matters''. Jones was a Nieman Fellow
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University awards multiple types of fellowships.
Nieman Fellowships for journalists
A Nieman Fellowship is an award given to journalists by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. ...
in 1982, and currently sits on the organization's advisory board. He also sits on the boards of the International Center for Journalists, the Sigma Delta Chi
The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909, at DePauw University,2009 SPJ Annual Report, letter ...
Foundation and other journalism-related boards.
He and his late wife were named Honorary Doctors of Humane Letters by Washington and Lee University, his alma mater. In 2011, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
and in 2014 inducted into the Tennessee Journalism Hall of Fame.
Personal life
Jones' family owned ''The Greeneville Sun
''The Greeneville Sun'' is a daily newspaper in Greeneville, Tennessee.http://www.greenevillesun.com/images/docs/mediaKit.pdf
Overview
The award-winning newspaper has a circulation of 14,390 for each of five weekday editions and 15,218 for the ...
'' in Greeneville, Tennessee
Greeneville is a town in and the county seat of Greene County, Tennessee, United States. The population as of the 2020 census was 15,479. The town was named in honor of Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene, and it is the second oldest town i ...
until selling that and the family's other media properties in 2016. The newspaper was the flagship of the Jones Media Inc., a group of small-town dailies, weeklies and monthlies in Tennessee and North Carolina, and he served on the company's board.
In 1964 he graduated from Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Downto ...
, and serves on the school's Board of Trustees. He graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1968 and served aboard USS Kearsarge and USS Coral Sea as a naval officer.
In 1985 Jones was married to Susan Elizabeth Tifft, a ''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine journalist from 1982 to 1991. In 1998 they became jointly Patterson Professor of the Practice of Journalism at the Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
Sanford School of Public Policy
The Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University is named after former Duke president and Governor of North Carolina Terry Sanford, who established the university's Institute for Policy Sciences and Public Affairs in 1971 as an interdiscipli ...
. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2007 and died in her Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
home on April 1, 2010. They had no children.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Alex
American male journalists
Harvard Kennedy School faculty
Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting winners
The New York Times writers
Nieman Fellows
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Washington and Lee University alumni
The New York Times Pulitzer Prize winners
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
1946 births