Instructor Biographies

Charles Apple has been the graphics director at The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk since October 2003. Previously, Apple was graphics editor of The Des Moines Register and an artist for the Chicago Tribune, The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer and for small papers in South Carolina and Georgia. He redesigned The Athens (Ga.) Daily News in 1987, The (Rock Hill, S.C.) Herald in 1990 and two Gannett weeklies in 2003. He has won numerous awards from the Society for News Design for design, graphics and graphics reporting. He has taught seminars around the country for organizations such as the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, the Alliance of Area Business Publications, the American Press Institute and SND. He was a presenter at SND annual workshops in 2000 (Minneapolis) and 2006 (Orlando). Apple writes a column for SND’s quarterly magazine, Design. He is a moderator and blogger for VisualEditors.com. Apple, 45, lives with his wife and 14-year-old daughter in Virginia Beach. In his spare time, he reads 20th century U.S. History, collects Star Trek action figures and writes about himself in the third person.

Bill Beauchamp has over 25 years of progressive experience and leadership in Human Resources and Management and Organizational Development. He has worked primarily in the media field with such companies as Knight-Ridder and Tribune Company. Most recently, he served for fifteen years as the Corporate Director of Human Resources and Organizational Development for Morris Communications Corporation, a diversified media organization with holdings in newspapers, radio, outdoor advertising, magazines and internet businesses. In 1999, Bill established his own consulting company specializing in human resource practices, performance management, process improvement and leadership assessment and coaching. He facilitates a variety of training programs in subjects ranging from general management and human resource compliance to strategic planning and teambuilding. Some of his recent clients include Ingersoll-Rand, JC Penny, State of Georgia, TFE Logistics and many major newspapers. He became a member of the American Management Association faculty in 2000. He presents programs on topics relating to human resource specialties as well as general management and supervision. In addition to being a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), Bill is also qualified in several assessment programs and instruments including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. He is also one of only five certified facilitators for the Newspaper Association of America’s Partners program, a team-based, continuous process improvement initiative and is qualified in Six Sigma. He is a member of many professional and civic organizations, including the Society for Human Resource Management. He serves on several boards and is the past president of the Media Human Resource Association

Robert J. Bobber graduated from University of Florida with a degree in Journalism and started his career with the Orlando Evening Star which later merged with the Orlando Sentinel. He held various positions including Home Delivery Manager, Single Copy Manager and Sales Development Manager before moving to New Jersey in 1980 where he served as Circulation Director of the Gloucester County Times, Vice President and General Manager of South Jersey Marketing Services and Publisher of Today’s Sunbeam. In 1987, Bobber joined the New York Times Company as the Marketing Director of the Gwinnett Daily News in the suburbs of Atlanta. After the Atlanta Journal and Constitution bought the assets of the Daily News, he went in business for himself launching a subscriber acquisition and retention company located in Gainesville, FL which he recently sold to TeleReach Inc., a national telemarketing firm in Connecticut. Over the past 3 years he has worked primarily in consulting and teaching. He conducts numerous District Manager training sessions and works with newspapers and various newspaper and media associations on the sale and retention of customers and as well as other circulation related subjects. He recently joined Suncoast Media Group as General Manager of the SCMG Polk County properties which include the Polk County Democrat, the Fort Meade Leader, the Lake Wales News, and the Polk Times.

Al Cross is director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky. He was a reporter at The Courier-Journal for 26 years, 16 as the Louisville newspaper’s chief political writer. He was national president of the Society of Professional Journalists in 2001-02 and currently serves SPJ as chairman of the Resolutions Committee, a member of the International Journalism Committee and a director of the group’s Sigma Delta Chi Foundation. His awards include a share of the Pulitzer Prize won by the C-J staff in 1989 for coverage of the nation’s deadliest bus crash. He is a frequent panelist on Kentucky Educational Television's “Comment on Kentucky” and has appeared on C-SPAN and "Washington Week In Review." He is a native of Albany and a graduate of Western Kentucky University and lives in Frankfort.

Bobby Hebert is the Sales Development Team Leader at The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, VA and is co-founder of Prime Time Solutions LLC, a sales training company. Bobby has over 25 years of sales experience in the newspaper industry.

Paula LaRocque is a communications consultant who has conducted workshops for hundreds of media, government, academic, and business groups in the United States, Canada, and Europe. She was writing coach and assistant managing editor at The Dallas Morning News from 1981 through 2001. She also has been consultant for the Associated Press, the Drehscheibe Institute in Bonn, and the European Stars & Stripes in Germany. From 1971 to 1981, she taught writing at various universities — technical writing at Western Michigan University’s School of Engineering, and creative or journalistic writing at Texas A&M, Southern Methodist, and Texas Christian universities. She is a columnist for Quill magazine as well as author of The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Well (Marion Street Press, 2003) and Championship Writing: 50 Ways to Improve Your Writing (Marion Street Press, 2000). She is at work on her first novel, a mystery. She was elected to the Associated Press Managing Editors Executive Board in 1998, and in 2001, she received the APME Meritorious Service Award for exemplary contribution to journalism. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree Summa Cum Laude from Western Michigan University and a Master of Arts degree from the same school.

Bill Smith is the Advertising Director at The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, VA and is co-founder of Prime Time Sales Solutions LLC. Prior to joining The Free Lance-Star, he held sales and/or management positions at The Roanoke Times, The Virginia Pilot, and The Washington Post.