Veteran journalist, Jeff Fruit, who has spent the past year as Interim Director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, has been appointed permanent director.

Fruit joined the university in 1998 as a senior business manager, directing the Office of Student Media. Prior to that, he worked for more than 15 years in print journalism in positions ranging from reporter to publisher.

He graduated cum laude from Ohio Wesleyan University with a double undergraduate major in journalism and history. He also earned an M.A. in journalism from Ohio State, and he passed general examinations for an interdisciplinary doctorate at Ohio State.

His media career includes startup and turnaround experience with American City Business Journals, where he served as editor of South Florida Business Journal and publisher of Dallas Business Journal, among other positions.

Fruit also worked as an assistant professor of journalism at Ohio Wesleyan.

He is co-author with Lee B. Becker and Susan L. Caudill of The Training and Hiring of Journalists, a monograph published by Ablex Publishing Corp.

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