Judd Slivka
Managing Editor
What I do here
As the managing editor, my job is to make the trains run on time. I run the day-to-day operations of the newsroom and supervise most of the managers and one reporter. I build out a lot of our newsroom systems, manage projects and timelines and coach our managers and reporters.
My Background
I got into journalism because I wanted to get paid for watching baseball games. That notion took me on a journey I never could have expected that included doing or teaching journalism in 43 states and on five continents.
My journalism career started at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock, Arkansas where I covered local government, tourism, Clinton-era welfare reform and a picnic basket of topics ranging from white supremacy to the transport of nuclear weapons. I spent a year at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer covering all the news that happened at night as well as the 1999 World Trade Organization conference that turned into three days of battles between police and protesters. I moved to the Arizona Republic in Phoenix to cover the environment, specializing in wildfire coverage while embedded with hotshot crews. I ended my time there covering the state’s chaotic higher education system.
I’ve spent time running the communications and IT departments at the Missouri Department of Natural Resources where I also served as the staff director of the Missouri Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission. I spent six years teaching journalism at my alma mater, the University of Missouri, where I specialized in cross-platform journalism and mobile journalism. I served as the Reynolds Journalism Institute’s first director of aerial journalism as well, teaching students and journalists around the world how to gather news via drone and satellite imagery.
Before coming here, I spent more than five years as the digital director at 12News, the NBC affiliate in Phoenix. There, I oversaw the transition from a TV-station-with-a-website into a cross-platform news outlet and developed and executed a 24/7 streaming strategy. I also oversaw planning for three Olympics, a Super Bowl and a World Series.
I also teach media literacy and digital culture at Webster University and the history of American journalism at Texas Tech University.
Where can you find me in Tulsa?
Along the first base line at ONEOK Field watching the Drillers (in the offseason, like Rogers Hornsby, I look out the window and wait for spring). You can also find me searching for barbecue and pizzas with a well-done crust. You can also find me taking pictures of airplanes; it’s a nerdy hobby I’ve had since I was 10.
Journalistic ethics
I’ve always tried to cover events with passion but not prejudice. I believe that the press has a duty to cover every subject fairly and with respect. I don’t make political donations or sign petitions, and I recuse myself from stories where I have a personal interest.