John Temple
Rocky Mountain News
John Temple was the editor, president and publisher of the Rocky Mountain News. He also served as VP News of the newspaper division of its parent company, the E.W. Scripps Co., before it closed the Rocky at the end of February. In that role, he advised Scripps editors and publishers on print and Web journalism issues. Today, he writes a blog, Temple Talk, www.johntemple.net, and writes, speaks, and consults on journalism issues.
Under his leadership, the Rocky Mountain News won four Pulitzer Prizes and numerous other national journalism awards. He joined the paper in 1992 as metro editor and was appointed managing editor in 1995. He was named editor in 1998 and added the publisher title in 2001. Before joining the Rocky, Temple was the managing editor of The Albuquerque Tribune. He has also worked at The Toronto Star.
In his role at the Rocky, Temple oversaw RockyMountainNews.com, which went live in early 1996 and was known for its commitment to specialized local reporting, such as RockyPreps.com, perhaps the deepest high school statistical package at any metro newspaper. He was the founding editor of YourHub.com, which when it appeared in 2005 was the largest "citizen journalism" initiative by a major American newspaper, with more than 40 hyper-local Web sites and 18 weekly print sections featuring content from the Web sites. In 2008, he launched RedBlueAmerica.com, a short-lived national web site funded by Scripps to attempt to bridge the gap between people on either side of the cultural divide.
Temple has a masters degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, which has placed him in its hall of achievement. He has a bachelors degree in English from the University of Toronto, where he also studied architecture. He is a member of the board of the American Society of News Editors.