PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Neil Budde, the head of news operations for internet portal Yahoo!, is the latest addition to the board of directors of the California First Amendment Coalition (CFAC), the nonprofit, public interest organization announced today.
Budde, who joined Yahoo! In 2004, is Vice President, Editor in Chief for Yahoo! News, Finance and Sports. He works in Yahoo!’s Santa Monica offices, where the company’s news operations are based.
“Neil brings to CFAC a range and depth of internet-based news and media expertise that are truly unexcelled,” said CFAC executive director Peter Scheer. “He was present at the creation of internet adaptations of mainstream news, and he now oversees the internet’s most popular, most-viewed news pages,” Scheer said.
Following a print media career as reporter and editor with The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., USA Today and The Richmond Times-Dispatch, Budde led the Wall Street Journal team that created that
company’s first digital offerings in the early 1990s, culminating in the 1996 launch on the internet of the Wall Street Journal onlineedition.
The Wall Street Journal’s web site is, and always has been, a paid subscription service–in contrast to the mostly free online editions of nearly all other large, daily newspapers. The Journal online claims to have over 800,000 paid subscribers.
CFAC in recent months has expanded its board. In addition to Budde, new board members include Ginger Moorhouse, publisher and board chairman of the Bakersfield Californian, and Dan Gillmor, internet journalism pioneer and founder of the Center for Citizen Media.
Other new CFAC board members are Stephen Barnett, First Amendment scholar and professor emeritus at Boalt Hall, David E. Lee, Executive Director of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee, and Dan Day, Managing Editor for the Modesto Bee.
CFAC, with offices in San Rafael CA, is dedicated to advancing free speech and open-government rights. A membership organization, CFAC’s activities include educational and informational programs, a Legal Hotline service, participation in “test case” litigation to enhance First Amendment rights for the largest number of citizens, and legislative oversight of bills affecting free speech.
CFAC’s members are newspapers and other news organizations, civic organizations, academics, freelance journalists, bloggers, community activists–and ordinary individuals seeking help in asserting rights of citizenship. CFAC’s web site is at www.cfac.org.
CONTACTS:
Paul C. Gullixson
CFAC President
Phone: (707) 521-5282
Peter Scheer
CFAC Executive Director
Phone: (415) 460-5060