David Westphal is a longtime newspaper reporter and editor, having served as managing editor of the Des Moines Register and Washington bureau chief for McClatchy newspapers. In more recent years he taught graduate journalism students, at USC and New York University. At NYU, he taught in the Studio 20 digital program.
While at USC he was also Editor-in-Chief of the California HealthCare Foundation’s Center for Health Reporting and an Executive in Residence at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. Prior to that he was Washington editor of McClatchy Newspapers, the nation’s third-largest newspaper company. He also served as co-chair of the Freedom of Information Committee for the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He joined McClatchy in 1995 as deputy bureau chief and was named bureau chief in January 1998.
With McClatchy’s purchase of Knight Ridder in 2006, he became editor of the combined Washington bureaus and the McClatchy Tribune News Service. Previously, he was managing editor of The Des Moines Register in Iowa. Westphal worked as a newspaper editor and reporter for nearly 40 years and served in a variety of roles, including Washington correspondent, sports editor and projects reporter. He has won the National Press Club’s Washington Correspondence Award and is two-time winner of the John Hancock Award for Business and Financial reporting.
While he was managing editor of The Des Moines Register, the newspaper won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. At USC Annenberg, he taught two graduate-level courses with Geoffrey Cowan: Leadership and the Future of Reporting in the Digital Age, and Entrepreneurship in the New Media.
As a senior fellow, Westphal focuses on new business models for news and leads the research team on CCLP’s Public Policy and the Future of News initiative.
Contact Westphal at dwestphal@gmail.com.