John A. Jenkins
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John A. Jenkins (born 1950-12-16) is an American journalist, author, and entrepreneur. He is Founder & CEO of Law Street Mediabr>
and President & Publisher Emeritus of CQ Press in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
Prior to founding Law Street, a web-based media company covering the world of law, in 2013, Jenkins served for 15 years as President & Publisher of CQ Press and created First Street, the pioneering web-based political intelligence platform. He has extensive board experience in the corporate, university, association, and philanthropic worlds. His corporate board experience includes SEC-reporting companies; as a journalist he specialized in securities and antitrust law. With media investment bank Jordan Edmiston Group, Jenkins led the auction that resulted in the sale of CQ Press to SAGE Publications (Thousand Oaks, CA) in 2008. He signed on as a member of the senior management team of SAGE for four years, reporting to the Global CEO. He remains President & Publisher Emeritus. Jenkins previously served as a division president of high-tech magazine publisher
Ziff Davis Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. First founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology-oriented media websites, online shopping-related services, an ...
, Inc., a subsidiary president of France Telecom, and, for 23 years, as an executive and member of the board of directors of BNA (now Bloomberg BNA), the Washington, D.C. information and publishing company.


Career


As a reporter

Jenkins began his career in 1971 as a reporter for BNA covering the U.S. Justice Department and courts. He demonstrated an investigative streak from the start, breaking stories about corporate scandals that led to investigations by the
Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...
and the
Watergate The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...
Special Prosecutor. In the summer of 1974, he scooped the world by revealing the Justice Department's intention to break apart the giant AT&T telephone monopoly. His story ran four months before the lawsuit was filed. He was named managing editor of BNA's flagship dailies at the age of 28. Two years later, he led BNA's entry into digital publishing, creating the electronic product line that now comprises almost the entirety of Bloomberg BNA's $350 million annual revenue.


As a journalist and author

As a journalist and author, Jenkins's work appeared in major magazines in the U.S. and abroad, including
The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...
, where he was a regular contributor from 1983 through 1987; GQ (American and British editions);
The Washington Monthly ''Washington Monthly'' is a bimonthly, nonprofit magazine of United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C. The magazine is known for its annual ranking of American colleges and universities, which serves as an alterna ...
; and
The American Lawyer ''The American Lawyer'' is a monthly legal magazine and website published by ALM Media. The periodical and its parent company, ALM (then American Lawyer Media), were founded in 1979 by Steven Brill.American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...
’s Gavel Award Certificate of Merit, the highest award in legal journalism, for his coverage of law and the courts. His historic article in ''
The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...
'', “A Candid Talk with Justice Blackmun,” won the ABA award. Jenkins's 1983 cover story about Supreme Court Justice
Harry Blackmun Harry Andrew Blackmun (November 12, 1908 – March 4, 1999) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 to 1994. Appointed by Republican President Richard Nixon, Blac ...
, based on numerous interviews spanning many months, was his first assignment for The Times Magazine. Blackmun's blunt assessments of his colleagues and the court were unprecedented for a sitting justice, and they garnered headlines nationwide. Two years later, Justice William Rehnquist sat for similar interviews. Jenkins's cover story in The Times Magazine, entitled “The Partisan,” revealed new information about Rehnquist's conservative past and brought unwelcome attention to the justice, who vowed never again to cooperate in such an endeavor. Eleven years later, Rehnquist wrote to Jack Rosenthal, the editor of The Times Magazine: “You are correct that I did give an interview to John Jenkins for the article which appeared in your magazine in 1985; it may have been in part the impression that article made on me that led me to decide not to grant any such interviews in the future." Jenkins wrote only occasionally for magazines after the 1980s, and mostly then for his friend Michael VerMeulen, who was editor of the British edition of GQ. Jenkins preferred to concentrate on book writing and publishing. His recent book, "The Partisan: The Life of William Rehnquist" (PublicAffairs, 2012), is an Editor's Choice of the New York Times Book Review. Jenkins is the author of two other popular books about lawyers, ''The Litigators: Inside the Powerful World of America's High-Stakes Trial Lawyers'' (Doubleday, 1989), and ''Ladies’ Man: The Life and Trials of
Marvin Mitchelson Marvin M. Mitchelson (May 7, 1928 – September 18, 2004) was an American celebrity lawyer who pioneered the concept of palimony, calling it "marriage with no rings attached". Early life Mitchelson was born in Detroit, Michigan, the younges ...
'' (St. Martin's, 1992). Jenkins is a member of the
Authors Guild The Authors Guild is America's oldest and largest professional organization for writers and provides advocacy on issues of free expression and copyright protection. Since its founding in 1912 as the Authors League of America, it has counted among ...
, PEN American Center, the executive council of the Association of American Publishers’ Professional and Scholarly Division, and is active in civic, professional and charitable affairs as a board member. He is the founder of the Broadway Bound Fund, which provides acting classes to youngsters through
the Armory Foundation The Armory Foundation is a non-profit organization located in New York City that operates the historic Fort Washington Avenue Armory. The Armory hosts over 100 track meets and over 220,000 athlete visits each year, including the prestigious Millros ...
of New York City; the chairman of the American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence, also known as the PROSE Award

a member of the Board of Visitors of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park; and a member of the Board of Directors of
OpenSecrets OpenSecrets is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that tracks data on campaign finance and lobbying. It was created from a merger of the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) and the National Institute on Money in Politics (NIMP). ...
in Washington, D.C. He served on the Federal Advisory Committee of the Commerce Department’s National Technical Information Service, the board of directors of the Friends of the Law Library of Congress, and the board of directors of the
Software and Information Industry Association The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) is a trade association dedicated to the entertainment, consumer and business software industries. Established in 1984 as the Software Publishers Association (SPA), the SIIA took its new na ...
. A 1972 graduate of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the
University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of Mary ...
,Philip Merrill College of Journalism , University of Maryland, College Park
/ref> he lives with his wife and children in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and Washington, D.C., where he remains active in city affairs following nine years of service as an elected advisory neighborhood commissioner.


References


External links


Personal Site
* Articles by Jenkins in the ''New York Times Magazine'': *The Hunt Brothers: Battling a Billion-Dollar Deb

*Mr. Power ttps://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50715FE3A5F0C718DDDA90994DE484D81&scp=8&sq=%22john+a+jenkins%22&st=nyt*The Partisa

Books by Jenkins: *''The Litigators: Inside the Powerful World of America's High-Stakes Trial Lawyers'' (Doubleday

*''Ladies’ Man: The Life and Trials of Marvin Mitchelson'' (St. Martin’s

*''The Partisan: The Life of William Rehnquist'' (PublicAffairs

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jenkins, John A. American male journalists Living people 1950 births University of Maryland, College Park alumni People from Washington, D.C.