McClatchy’s Julie Moos named Press Club Journalism Institute executive director

Julie Moos, managing director of news at McClatchy, will be the executive director of the National Press Club Journalism Institute (NPCJI), the institute's board announced Dec. 7.

Moos will begin work at NPCJI on Jan. 7.

As managing director of news at McClatchy, Moos led coaching and training for reporters and editors in 30 newsrooms. Programs included a wide range of subjects, such as fair use and audience-centered storytelling. She also led a real-time news team of reporters and editors who drive millions of readers to McClatchy products each month.

Andy Pergam, McClatchy's vice president of news operations and new ventures, called Moos a "partner, mentor, teacher and translator" for the newsroom and credited her with launching one of the media organization's first daily newsletters. Moos, he said, also helped guide the newsroom through the technological changes that disrupted the media landscape.

"She led many of us through reinvention or design-thinking exercises," Pergam said. "Her heart and soul have been dedicated to our progress and tempered by her compassion during challenging times.”

Before joining McClatchy in 2013, Moos spent 11 years at the Poynter Institute, renowned for its mid-career professional-development programs for journalists. Moos spent seven years at market-leading WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina, the nation’s most-innovative local TV station, running WRAL.com, writing for morning broadcasts, and producing news graphics.

NPCJI Board of Directors President Barbara Cochran praised Moos' broad experience in print, digital and broadcast newsrooms.

That experience, Cochran said, would help Moos design professional-development programs for journalists at every stage of their careers. “Julie is also passionate about the press freedom issues that journalists are confronting here at home and around the world," she said.

Moos said leading the Journalism Institute would be an honor. “I can think of no challenge more important and meaningful right now than advancing press freedom and preparing the next generation of journalists,” she said.

Moos succeeds the longtime NPCJI Executive Director Julie Cooper Schoo, who died in May 2018. Moos was chosen by the NPCJI Board of Directors after a search process led by Angela Greiling Keane, deputy states editor at Politico and a former National Press Club president.