An alumna quoted in an article in Wednesday’s paper should have been identified as Emily Tannert.

The Daily regrets this error.

Former Northwestern Media Management Center director John Lavine will become the new Medill dean Jan. 9, raising questions among some alumni about the school’s direction.

The move was announced in a Dec. 7 press release. Lavine will replace Loren Ghiglione, who said in November that he would step down from the position. He will continue to teach at Medill after taking a leave during the 2006-07 school year.

Lavine formerly served as the founding director of NU’s Media Management Center. The center was created in 1989 to conduct research on readership and media trends. Lavine also worked as a writer and editor for Lavine Newspaper Group, a company he created, for 25 years. The company oversaw the publication of four daily newspapers and four weekly newspapers, all out of Wisconsin, as well as a medical journal.

Lavine has called for a “fundamental change in the education that Medill offers,” in an effort to produce graduates who understand what motivates an audience as well as what makes great journalism.

“Medill is the only journalism school in the country that has great journalism and great audience understanding and research on both,” Lavine said, referring to Medill’s Integrated Marketing Communications graduate program as well as the Media Management Center. “Every great editor and great writer wants what they produce to be read or seen or heard by people.”

Lavine said audience-understanding components will be a part of every new syllabus created and the faculty will start being trained to teach journalism on a “multi-platform” level.

Instead of journalism being viewed in separate spheres of print and broadcast, the journalism of the future incorporates mediums and includes the use of vehicles such as text messaging and digital images.

“There isn’t some magic wall (between mediums),” Lavine said. “Everyone needs to be literate about all the platforms and all the technologies.”

Lavine said he hopes incoming freshman next fall will be provided with digital cameras and video cameras and will receive basic training in all media platforms and technologies over their four years at Medill.

Changes to the Medill curriculum will happen at a “high rate” during the next school year, with some current classes being dropped or changed, and more classes held downtown to incorporate the Chicago community, he said.

He added that it is too early to say what specific courses might be changed or dropped.

Professor Emeritus Roger Boye said the changes Lavine will bring are timely and reflect a need for change in the news media industry, not just at the Medill School of Journalism.

“Media is changing and journalism media will change but values will stay the same,” Boye said. “The better we get to know and understand our audience, the better off we’ll be.”

Lavine’s appointment has been a topic of discussion on Medill’s alumni listserv, drawing the attention of the Chicago Reader. A column in the Reader’s Dec. 16 issue called some of Lavine’s initial statements about including more marketing concepts in the school’s curriculum “worrisome.”

Michael Hershaft, a 1995 Medill graduate who now works as an attorney, recently withdrew a $500 donation to the school because of Lavine’s appointment.

“I love the school and take pride in the traditional journalism education that I got,” Hershaft said. “(Lavine) seems sort of cut against what Medill is about and what the university is about.”

Hershaft said he does not think Lavine values Medill’s current strengths.

“Things like gathering facts and writing under deadline pressure, things that helped get me into law school are what a good journalism school should be about,” Hershaft said, “not examining newspaper readership.” He also said Lavine has less experience practicing journalism than Medill’s previous deans.

Michelle Tannert, a 2004 Medill graduate, said most graduates commenting on the Medill alumni listserv are not as concerned as Hershaft.

“No one has talked about withdrawing donations, but journalists are pessimistic – some see this as the apocalypse,” Tannert said.

She said most alumni have expressed “guarded concern” about his plan to bring Medill’s IMC department and the journalism department closer together.

“I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt,” she said, “but we should keep an eye on him.”

The Daily’s Margaret Matray contributed to this report.

Reach Amanda Palleschi at [email protected].