Bruce Koon is a program coordinator for Contra Costa Youth Journalism in Contra Costa County, California, and mentors college and high school journalism students and mid-career journalists. He is a member of Pro News Coaches, a network of former Wall Street Journal editors and reporters assisting local news organizations.
As an adviser for the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, he conducted research on U.S. newsroom diversity and inclusion programs in 2018 and 2019.
He taught “The Social Impact of Journalism” at San Francisco State University in 2019 and guest lectured for a “History of Online News” class at UC Berkeley in 2022.
Previously, Koon was News Director for KQED, one of the largest NPR- and PBS-affiliated public radio/television stations in the nation, for nearly 8 years, and held several editor positions during 11 years with Knight Ridder’s digital divisions, including Executive News Editor. He was a founding board member of the Online News Association and served two terms as president. His newspaper reporter and business editor career included the Wall Street Journal, the National Observer, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and the Oakland Tribune.
Koon has served as an adviser for the Knight Digital Media Center at the University of Southern California, J-Lab (The Institute of Interactive Journalism) at American University, the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, and the independent student newspaper for the University of California at Berkeley, The Daily Californian.
Contact Koon at commlead@usc.edu.