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Q&A with Thomas P. Schaffner (MSJ80)

Tom Schaffner shares his Medill story, from starting his own communications firm to starting a new company with his daughter.

Why did you come to Medill for graduate school after getting an undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Kansas, a pretty good journalism school?

I had been working for three years at an entertainment-oriented public relations firm in Chicago but wasn’t doing the kind of writing I wanted to do.  I decided that the nine-month path to an MSJ at Medill was the perfect way for me transition from a non-writing job back into the world of journalism.  I was told many times by teachers and journalists that an MSJ was unnecessary for someone already holding a BSJ.  For me, the MSJ was a necessary step to get myself back into the world of writing and editing, something that I missed and was more comfortable with.

What was your area of concentration? Favorite courses?

My undergraduate degree at Kansas was in newswriting, so I thought I would concentrate in something different at Medill.  I chose the Magazine sequence and thoroughly enjoyed Professor Peter Jacobi, his classes, teaching style and, of course, his legendary trip to New York where we visited the staffs of top magazines at their offices.  I also particularly enjoyed ethics and media classes taught by Richard Schwarzlose.  He would start with a simple dilemma but keep adding complications so that by the end of class, everyone saw the issue from a completely different perspective.

What was your first job after Medill?

Shortly after graduating from Medill (1980), I accepted a communications specialist position at the National Live Stock & Meat Board, a Chicago-based organization that conducted programs of research, education, advertising and promotion on behalf of the nation’s beef, pork and lamb industries.  When I left six years later, I had been promoted to Director of Communications and was responsible for developing and implementing internal and external communications programs to trade and consumer audiences nationwide.  I learned two very important things at the Meat Board, both of which had a profound influence on the rest of my communications career:  1) almost any transaction or project underway at a company or business organization has a communications issue at its core and 2) there is an inexhaustible need for people who know how to communicate effectively at these very same companies or organizations.  These gems were the inspiration I needed to become an entrepreneur.

Before you opened Schaffner Communications, you created a newsletter called the Chicago File. Can you talk about your mission and how you did it?

When I was a freshman at Kansas (1977), I subscribed to the Chicago Daily News (newspaper) so I could keep up with everything that was happening back home.  Unfortunately, the newspaper, which traveled to me via the U.S. Postal Service, usually arrived about 10 days late and came in bunches of about five or six at a time.  I remember thinking at the time that there had to be a better way to keep up with news from Chicago.  I filed the thought in my mind and eight years later developed and produced a sample newsletter for former Chicagoans that became known as the Chicago File (for Chicagophiles).  The sample issue evolved into a monthly publication that contained news and features about what was happening in Chicago — buildings going up and coming down, the latest indicted politicians, new transit lines being contemplated and the most popular feature, a column called “Only in Chicago” which highlighted quirky events, bizarre activities and odd news items that could only happen in Chicago.  Subscribers were former Chicagoans, people who no longer lived in the Chicago area but wanted to know what was going on there.  At its height, the Chicago File had several thousand subscribers around the world and received a lot of coverage and publicity from major news outlets across the country.  Its cult-like following and popularity was, in essence, my 15 minutes of fame.  I continued to publish the Chicago File for six years and although it was breaking even financially, I decided to shut it down in 1991, literally at the dawn of the Internet.  Today I am recycling much of that 35-year-old Chicago File material into an online blog for my newest entrepreneurial adventure, L Stop Tours.  It’s deja vu all over again.

When did you launch your own firm?

In 1985, while still working at the Meat Board, I had the opportunity to work with first-time ever desktop publishing software and a newly invented HP laser printer.  I immediately saw the future of publishing — writers, graphic designers, typesetters, layout personnel and printers could now be combined into a single person and, by so doing, could speed the publishing process and remove significant costs from the system.  For someone like me who spent much of his career producing time-intensive newsletters, the new design software and printers were a game changer, they represented a tremendous new business opportunity for anyone willing to take the plunge.  I decided to open a communications firm, Schaffner Communications, which was incorporated in July 1986.  I was 30 years old at the time.  My first corporate act?   I ran out to a store and bought a Macintosh computer, Pagemaker design and graphics software, Microsoft Word 1 for the Mac, Filemaker (database software) a laser printer, a daisy wheel printer (for envelope labels) and a few other miscellaneous items for $15,000.  Today, a MacBook Air laptop computer and a laser printer alone cost less than 10 percent of that amount.  Too bad I couldn’t delay my purchase for 35 years — I would have saved plenty.

What was the mission of Schaffner Communications?  What did your business focus on?

Schaffner Communications was designed from the get-go to be radically different than other firms in the marketplace. For starters, we positioned ourselves as a communications consulting firm and not a public relations firm because we wanted to portray ourselves as experts in the field of communications.  More specifically, our area of expertise was to help businesses — large and small — build and maintain effective communication systems that delivered important and timely messages to key corporate audiences consistently, effectively and efficiently.  For us, quality corporate communication belonged in the hands of skilled professional journalists — so we made it company policy to hire account personnel with only those qualifications.

How did your Medill skills contribute to the success of Schaffner Communications?

Journalists know how to write, communicate, develop creative solutions to problems, gather information, ask questions, edit copy so that reads better than the previous version, and much more.  I honed all of these skills at Medill and put them to good use at my consulting firm.  At Schaffner Communications, we used our journalistic skills to improve the quality of communications at businesses and corporations across the country — sharper, crisper editing of key corporate documents, improved media relations with more transparency, faster periodical production cycles with upgraded equipment and technology, increased collaboration at all levels of project management and a host of other techniques and initiatives.

You were the agency of record for a $4 billion wholesale grocery cooperative for many years. How did you not only maintain that business, but grow it? What were your secrets of success?

This Los Angeles-based firm outsourced all of their communications (internal and external) to Schaffner Communications for 19 years (1994-2013), they were one of our largest and longest-tenured clients.  One hundred percent of the clients served by Schaffner Communications over the past 35 years came to us via a referral, and this particular client was no exception.  We were recommended to the senior management team by friends of mine who had worked there as labor management consultants.  While it’s true that quality work speaks for itself, a good referral gets you in the door and provides you with an opportunity to prove yourself over the long haul — and working anywhere over the long haul is a sure way to grow the business.  Another reason we were able to hold onto this client for such a long time is because I worked hard to develop a strong, dynamic relationship with the chief executive officer of the company, as well as the senior management team.  With their constant and unwavering support of our efforts, it was relatively easy to develop and maintain effective and efficient communication systems and programs throughout the company.

Can you talk about your next chapter – “L” Stop Tours? How did it come to be and how’s it going so far?

A little over a year ago, I started a new business with my daughter, Lindsay, a Chicago tour company called L Stop Tours.  We’re only in our second season but already the business is tremendously successful.  Our tours are different — we utilize Chicago’s elevated transit system (the “L”) to travel to interesting neighborhoods throughout the city and, upon arrival, explore the history, culture and food of the area via walking tours.  We believe that you haven’t seen Chicago if you haven’t been to the neighborhoods and we are the only company in the metropolitan area that travels to these areas via the L.  All of our tours start in the Loop and then head to such neighborhoods as Pilsen, the Prairie Avenue Historic District, Chinatown, Wicker Park and Fulton Market.  We also have special tours that go to Andersonville, Evanston, breweries along the Blue Line and another that visits historic Chicago taverns.  I do the vast majority of the tours because I love Chicago, have lived here my entire life and know a lot about city’s history, culture and traditions.  At age 64 I finally found my dream job!

Photo: Tom Schaffner (right) with daughter, Lindsay McNaught, co-owners of L Stop Tours, on the El platform, of course!

Categories
1970s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Joe Frolik (BSJ76)

Joe Frolik has been promoted to the newly created position of executive editor at ideastream, Northeast Ohio’s public media source. In his new role, Frolik is responsible for the planning, creation and supervision of all local news and information content produced or presented for ideastream audiences. He leads content managers and staff across all platforms and develops and maintains ideastream’s partnerships. Previously, Frolik served as ideastream’s managing producer for community affairs, and spent more than 30 years with Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer as a reporter, national correspondent and finally chief editorial writer.

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Medill News

Medill announces new partnership with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Medill and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced a new collaboration on Feb. 26.  Through this initiative, the Bulletin is partnering with students in Medill’s graduate journalism Health, Environment and Science specialization and Politics, Policy and Foreign Affairs specialization in Washington, D.C., to provide an outlet for aspiring journalists focused on the Bulletin’s coverage areas of nuclear weapons, climate change and disruptive technologies.

The newest story in this venture is from Medill alumna Stephanie Fox (MSJ19). With vivid prose and an adventurer’s heart, Fox chronicles her trip to the Mongolian mountains with two glacial geologists, a high school teacher, three undergraduate science majors and a collection of Mongolian guides to show how boulders there reveal the pace of the climate crisis. It’s a mesmerizing story about climate change, but it’s also, as Fox puts it, “[A] story about teamwork and hardship and the people who dedicate their lives to traveling around the world in the hope of fitting a small piece into a much larger scientific puzzle. This is a story about what it takes to research climate change.”

Medill Dean Charles Whitaker said, “These young professionals are gaining real-world experience and mentoring from an editorial team known for taking important, difficult topics and making them lucid and accessible. I am delighted that the best and brightest young minds in journalism today will have the opportunity to work with a publication as storied and venerable as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.”

John Mecklin, the Bulletin’s editor-in-chief, added, “Medill is one of the premier journalism schools in the world. Medill’s student journalists are top-flight—smart, dedicated and willing to learn. We are happy to help guide them and to feature their reporting and writing in a way that fosters their futures, and the future of American public-interest journalism.”

The first story in the partnership was published in the Bulletin in October 2019: “Puerto Rico’s clean-energy and grid-restoration efforts still in doubt.” In it, then Medill graduate student Jillian Melero (MSJ19) reported on the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and discovers that the hurricane has acted as “a catalyst for change that is long overdue.”

Several more stories are in the pipeline for review with the Bulletin working with Medill Assistant Professor Abigail Foerstner in Chicago and Professor Ellen Shearer in Washington, D.C.

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Event Photos

Medill hosted a panel on Feb. 21 at Medill Chicago featuring alumnae entreprenuers (from left) Kimberley Rudd (BSJ88), President, Rudd Resources LLC, Isabella Jiao (MSJ18), VP of Marketing at FanFood, Puja Mohindra (BSJ00), actor, writer and producer, Nikitta Foston (MSJ14) Host, Pivotal Moment Podcast at iHeartMedia and Sandy Marsico (IMC06), Founder & CEO, Sandstorm®

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Books

Saving Calypso

Dawn Church (MSJ78)

Heiress Calypso Swale was about to join the U.S. Olympic Equestrian team when a car crash involving drunken Grieg Washburn, heir to the Washburn Exploration (WashEx) empire, killed her parents. At the time, Larch Swale, Calypso’s father, was COO of WashEx. Her father’s last word to her was “Run,” and Calypso obligingly disappeared with a chunk of his money and a precious patent for a new kind of engine. Five years later, Grieg’s father is dead and it looks like someone’s trying to kill Grieg too. WashEx’s board is offering a reward for Calypso’s return, and no one wants her found more than Grieg.

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1980s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Yvette Walker (BSJ83)

Yvette Walker, assistant dean at the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma, will be inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame. Walker is among 10 inductees to be honored. “The 50th anniversary gives us an opportunity to celebrate the many historic accomplishments of journalists who have made an impact in Oklahoma and nationwide,” said Joe Hight, director and Edith Kinney Gaylord Endowed Chair of Journalism Ethics at the University of Central Oklahoma. The gala will be at 6 p.m. Friday, April 24, at the Oklahoma History Center.

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1980s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Amy Buckman (BSJ86, MSJ86)

Amy Buckman, Dir. of School and Community Relations for Lower Merion School District, was recognized by the Phila. Public Relations Assoc. for her work following the deaths of LM alumnus Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others. Her statement on behalf of the District at 4:15 p.m. ET the day of the crash was carried live internationally. She coordinated media availabilities with student athletes and alumni, and with Mr. Bryant’s coaches, while balancing the safety and emotional needs of students and staff with the desire of members of the public who wanted to pay homage outside the high school gymnasium.

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1970s Class Notes

Sharon Sutker McGowan (MSJ75)

Sharon Sutker McGowan was named to the Milwaukee Press Club Hall of Fame in November 2019. McGowan was the founding editor of the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (NNS), a nonprofit online news organization that covers the central city of Milwaukee. McGowan left NNS in February 2019 to become the Collaborations Leader for the Institute for Nonprofit News.

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Books

Talk is Chief: Leadership, Communication & Credibility in a High-Stakes World

Jack Modzelewski (MSJ80)

The stakes for today’s leaders are high. Leadership communication practices can be a differentiator, bringing new meaning to Winston Churchill’s statement: “The difference between mere management and leadership is communication.”

Leaders today spend up to 90 percent of each day communicating to make good things happen in their organizations. With compelling stories and strategies, “Talk Is Chief — Leadership, Communication & Credibility in a High-Stakes World” will inspire leaders to treat their communication practices as seriously as all of their other executive responsibilities.

Modzelewski has more than 35 years of experience working with many Fortune 500 companies as a communications consultant. “Talk is Chief” suggests that too many leaders undervalue and underperform their vital communication responsibilities. They do so at their own disadvantage in this age of heightened activism, transparency, disruption, disinformation, and crisis.

Leon Panetta, former congressman and US Secretary of Defense, recommends “Talk is Chief,” calling it “a guide to leadership at a challenging time of tweets, fake news and growing divisions within our democracy. The simple fact is that words matter – and that simple words matter the most when they speak to our values.”

Dean Charles Whitaker spoke to Jack about “Talk is Chief” – watch the interview on YouTube. 

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Features Home My Medill Story

Hannah Gebresilassie (MSJ16) celebrates positivity with HannahJoyTV

A “leap of faith” has taken Hannah Gebresilassie on a journey from working as a television reporter in a small-town in Illinois to launching headfirst into developing her own media brand.

Late in 2018, Gebresilassie launched HannahJoyTV  and the and the Promote Positivity Movement, combining her passion for entrepreneurship and her love of storytelling to share uplifting news and promote a message of worldwide peace and unity for her followers across social media platforms.

Today, her personal brand and her company are still growing and evolving in ways she never expected.

“It’s taken its own form, honestly,” said Gebresilassie. “I went from just focusing on the storytelling aspect to releasing a brand, like a whole merch line that goes along with it. It went from just sharing positive stories to sharing a positive message in many forms.”

At the end of February, Gebresilassie was the keynote speaker for Project Africa, an annual event hosted by the African Student Association at Georgia Tech, her alma mater.

HannahJoyTV is simultaneously a celebration of Gebresilassie’s Ethiopian-Eritrean heritage and universal content that “anyone and everyone” can enjoy. This duality is reflected in HannahJoyTV’s logo: four hearts of green, yellow, red, and blue, from the colors of the Ethiopian and Eritrean flags.

The design reflects the desire for unity and peace between the two countries that Gebresilassie says she and many members of the Ethiopian and Eritrean communities hope for.

“But it’s also the same colors as Google, if you think about it,” Gebresilassie said. “I wanted to create something neutral that anybody could relate to.”

The daughter of Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants, Gebresilassie grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. After earning an undergraduate in business administration from Georgia tech and a master’s in journalism from Medill, Gebresilassie fell in love with telling stories and became a television reporter for WSIL-TV in southern Illinois in the summer of 2017.

In her first year, Gebresilassie brought global perspectives to her local TV audience that rippled out across social media. After just a few months on the job, her coverage of an Ethiopian New Year celebration went viral. Not long after, Gebresilassie wore a traditional braided hairstyle on air that again caused a buzz.

“It was actually pretty crazy that I was reporting on this international situation in this little rural town in southern Illinois and people actually really appreciated it,” she said.

By the end of her first year she was in charge of WSIL-TV’s “Going Global,” a news segment where she could report and share stories about immigrant communities in southern Illinois.

“I just saw what I could do,” Gebresilassie said. “When I was working as a reporter, a lot of my stuff went viral. I just kind of said, ‘if I can do this here, what I could do on my own?’”

Gebresilassie said that what inspired her to transition to create HannahJoyTV was gaining a new perspective on the potential that was in front of her.  The biggest challenge Gebresilassie faced was money— she moved from Southern Illinois back to Atlanta, Georgia, where her parents live.

“I’ve been the brokest I’ve been since undergrad, to be frank,” Gebresilassie said. “But I’m happy. I’m happy with the flexibility that I have and I’m thankful.”

Gebresilassie took on side jobs that were easy on her mental health as she developed HannahJoyTV— washing dishes and babysitting.

“I always tell people, everyone doesn’t come from the same type of financial situation,” she said. “And it’s okay to take jobs that can fill the gaps in the meantime.”

But in the past months, Gebresilassie has seen a burgeoning income from emceeing at events around the country and freelance projects she found through connections she made at Medill.

And she has developed an expert eye for cost-saving opportunities to promote her brand— in 2019, she organized a pop-up tour across eight states, around her existing travel plans to visit family.

But managing her time to address every aspect of her platform is also a challenge for Gebresilassie.

“The to-do list never seems to end,” she said. “For me, it’s like my mind goes in sometimes a hundred different directions, so I’m still working on building a structure and making sure that I’m just taking care of everything equally.”

But Gebresilassie has never doubted the direction she is taking— and for that she acknowledges her time at Medill.

“My time at Medill really prepared me to be the ultimate journalist…you’re at Medill with these incredibly talented people from all over,” she said. “And I found my niche while I was there. I found that my heart was in the community.”