Top JRC Editor Features at PRSA Luncheon at Quinnipiac

Matt DeRienzo, group editor for Journal Register Company’s publications in Connecticut, will be the guest speaker at the Southern Connecticut Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America’s next luncheon program at 12 noon on Wednesday, Jan. 11, in the Quinnipiac University Rocky Top Student Center, Room 303.

DeRienzo, who oversees the New Haven Register, Middletown Press, Register Citizen and Connecticut Magazine, will discuss recent changes at each of the publications, including the creation of an investigative team, a breaking news team, and audience engagement team at the New Haven Register. In addition, The Register created beats dedicated to coverage of Yale University and land use, business climate and environmental health of the Long Island Sound.

Before being named group editor, DeRienzo was regional publisher for JRC in Central and Northwest Connecticut, overseeing the Middletown Press, The Register Citizen in Torrington, nine weekly newspapers, a shopper and a quarterly magazine.

In December 2010, The Register Citizen opened the country's first Newsroom Cafe, integrated into the newspaper's offices, with no walls between the public and reporters and editors. It features coffee, pastries, free public wifi, free public access to 134 years of newspaper archives, a Community Media Lab with workstations for local bloggers, a built-in classroom that offers free classes and workshops to the public, and daily story meetings that are open to the public and live-streamed on the web.

Before becoming a publisher in Connecticut, DeRienzo was corporate director of news for small dailies and non-daily publications at Yardley, Pa.-based Journal Register Company from 2005 to 2008. He started his career in newspapers the day after his 18th birthday at his hometown weekly newspaper in Westbrook, Maine, and worked as a reporter and editor in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont prior to joining Journal Register Company as editor of The Register Citizen in 2003.

The Register Citizen was recognized in fall 2011 with the Associated Press Managing Editors "Innovator of the Year" award. It was also named to Editor & Publisher magazine's "10 Newspapers That Do It Right" list. DeRienzo was named to Editor & Publisher's 2011 "25 Under 35" list and Litchfield Magazine's list of the "50 Most Influential People in Litchfield County." In June, he received a "Lifetime Achievement Award" from the United Way of Northwest Connecticut.

The fee for the program is $15 for members; $20 for non-members and $5 for students. Lunch and refreshments will be provided. To register, please contact Paula Fowler at 203-582-8652 or paula.fowler@quinnipiac.edu.

The Southern Connecticut Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America was formed to advance the public relations profession and the PR professional. The chapter represents a diverse group of mid- to senior-level professionals who are committed to enhancing the practice of public relations in Southern Connecticut. Professionals in the chapter represent advertising agencies, independent consultants, business and industry, government, hospitals and health care organizations, professional associations, education and nonprofit organizations. The chapter also has an association with the Quinnipiac University Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). For more information, visit www.prsact.org or the Southern Connecticut Chapter of the Public Relations Society group on Facebook.

PRSA is the world’s largest organization for public relations professionals. Its nearly 20,000 members, organized into 117 chapters, represent business and industry, technology, counseling firms, government, associations, hospitals, schools, professional services firms and nonprofit organizations.

Chartered in 1947, PRSA’s seeks to advance the standards of the public relations profession and provide members with professional development opportunities through continuing education programs, information exchange forums and, national and local research projects.