Dennis Herrick

Photo: Ruth Schiek

Dennis Herrick holds an M.A. in journalism from the University of Iowa. He is retired from the journalism faculty in the Department of Communication & Journalism at the University of New Mexico. He taught part-time for two years at the University of Iowa.

He was owner and publisher of a group of weekly newspapers and a shopper in Iowa for 12 years before selling his company in 1997. His newspapers won several awards for news coverage, editorials, photography and newspaper design during his ownership. He also was a reporter for more than 11 years with daily newspapers in Michigan, and he is a former licensed commercial real estate broker who specialized in the sale of weekly newspapers. He was chief of staff for a member of Congress in 1977-85.

He is the author of Media Management in the Age of Giants: Business Dynamics of Journalism, published in 2003 by Wiley-Blackwell Publishing and reissued in 2005 in India by Surjeet Publications. A revised second edition is to be published in 2012 by University of New Mexico Press.

As for the photo, one of his hobbies is raising and tagging migrating monarch butterflies. He also writes fiction and won the 2004 Tony Hillerman Mystery Short Story Contest and the 2010 Society of Southwestern Authors Short Story Contest. He has been runnerup in other contests with his short stories, including the Hillerman contest and the Southwestern Writers contests.

Sample Publications:

• "The Tiguex War in Fact, Folklore and Fiction," Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint, eds. The Latest from 1540, University of New Mexico Press, 2011
• Winter of the Metal People: The Tiguex War, (in press) Gibbs Smith Publishing, 2010
• "Handbook of Media Management and Economics," (pdf) review in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Spring 2006
• "Spirit Journey," fictional short story, Wapsipinicon Almanac literary magazine, December 2005
• "Hunting Season," fictional short story, Tony Hillerman Mystery Contest winner, Cowboys & Indians magazine, March 2005
• "The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the 21st Century," (pdf) review in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Winter 2004
• "Backstory: Inside the Business of News," (pdf) review in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Summer 2004
• Media Management in the Age of Giants: Business Dynamics of Journalism, a textbook for media management courses, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing (formerly Iowa State Press), 2003
• "The Business of Media: Corporate Media and the Public Interest," (pdf) review in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Summer 2002
• "Acquiring a neighbor's paper often the fastest, safest way to grow," Publishers' Auxiliary, National Newspaper Association, December 2001
• "What you should know to sell your newspaper," Publishers' Auxiliary, National Newspaper Association, December 2007