The USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy (CCLP) is pleased to announce the addition of Adam Symson, president and CEO of The E.W. Scripps Company, to the CCLP Advisory Board.
Symson is a passionate supporter of freedom of the press who serves on the board of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which was co-founded by Murray Fromson, former director of the USC Annenberg School of Journalism.
“I am delighted to have Adam on our CCLP board,” said CCLP Director Geoffrey Cowan. “I have followed his work with great admiration since the time when he was a student in my class on media law at UCLA more than 30 years ago.”
Since he started work in 2002 as the executive producer of investigations and special projects for KNXV, the Scripps-owned ABC affiliate in Phoenix, Symson has been a transformative figure at the company where one of his mentors was the late John Lansing who was a Senior Fellow at CCLP. Symson became the company’s president and CEO in 2017. In that role, he has diversified the company, creating the Scripps Networks national broadcast television network division and expanding Scripps’ local television station holdings.
An important advocate and thought leader for journalism, Symson was recognized by Broadcasting & Cable as Broadcaster of the Year in 2023; The Library of American Broadcasting Foundation as a Giant of Broadcasting in 2022; the National Association of Broadcasters with a Digital Leadership Award in 2016; Borrell’s Award of Merit in 2014; and by Broadcasting & Cable as the Multiplatform Broadcaster of the Year in 2011. In addition to his role with the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press, he serves on the boards of directors for Cincinnati’s Holocaust & Humanity Center, 70 Faces Media, and The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati.
For more on Symson, please read his complete biography. He joins co-chairs Nancy Gibbs and Mickey Kantor and a distinguished group of journalism and media leaders on the CCLP Advisory Board, who are listed here.