John Wilburn

Managing Editor

Houston Chronicle
Houston, Texas

Wilburn

Career summary: I joined the Houston Chronicle in October 2002 as an assistant managing editor with responsibility for the paper's Sunday editions and became managing editor in February 2004. I had previously piloted publications in all three of Texas' big cities: as managing editor of Houston City Magazine, creator and editor of Viva (the Sunday magazine of the San Antonio Light), managing editor of Dallas Life (the Sunday magazine of The Dallas Morning News), and founding editor of the Houston Press, an alternative weekly. Following my tenure at the Press, I spent four years as a reporter and producer for Talking With David Frost, the PBS interview program that featured such diverse personalities as Ross Perot, Garth Brooks, George H.W. Bush, Carlos Salinas, Luciano Pavarotti and Bill Gates. I came to the Chronicle following a five-year sojourn in new media, first as founder and executive producer of Microsoft's MSN Sidewalk/Houston, then as news and operations manager of KHOU.com, the website of Houston's CBS television affiliate. I'm a graduate of the College of William & Mary and hold a master's degree in history from George Mason University, where I'm on the board of advisors to the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. I'm married to the writer Mimi Swartz; we have one son, Sam.

Recent accomplishments: The Chronicle received the Newspaper of the Year award this spring from the Texas APME.

APME activities: I've been attending the APME annual conferences since 2003 (in Phoenix). I'm looking forward to becoming more involved.

APME should: Embrace the new. What we do is important. But where we publish our work – whether on paper or pixels, radio waves or stone tablets – is not. As a group, we need to help each other figure out how best to deliver what we do when and where our audience wants it, in multiple formats.

In my spare time: I enjoy playing the banjo, the tinwhistle, and poker.