Philadelphia Inquirer Executive To Speak Feb. 18

2-11-97

University Park, Pa. -In celebration of Black History Month, Penn State's College of Communications is sponsoring a lecture by Charles B. Fancher, vice president for communications and public affairs of Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc. on Tuesday, Feb. 18, at 5 p.m. in Carnegie Cinema.

PNI is the publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.

Fancher is responsible for internal and external communications, government relations, community relations and corporate giving for PNI. He will lead a discussion on "Who Needs Black History Month: A Media Executive's Perspective," immediately followed by a performance by the United Soul Ensemble and a buffet of ethnic food prepared by College of Communications faculty and students.

The events are sponsored by the African, Hispanic, Asian and Native Americans in Communications and the Penn State Association of Journalists for Diversity, and are free and open to the public. No reservations are required

From 1977-84, Fancher was a reporter and later, editor at The Inquirer. He spent five years at the Detroit Free Press, where he was promoted to editor of the Free Press' Sunday magazine. During this time, he received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for Journalists, for study at the University of Michigan. He returned to Philadelphia in 1989 to become director of communications for PNI, and was promoted to his current position in 1990.

Fancher also worked for ABC in the 1970s on such programs as "Good Morning America" and coverage of the 1976 Winter Olympics, and was a news reporter at the NBC affiliate in his hometown of Nashville. He is a 1970 graduate of the University of Tennessee.

Active in civic affairs, Fancher is secretary of the Board of Directors of the Community College of Philadelphia Foundation, vice chairman of the Communications Academy Board of Governors of the Philadelphia High School Academies, former chairman of the Board of Freedom Theatre, and a member of the Board of the Corporate Alliance for Drug Education.

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Contact: Angie Bolton at (814) 865-8801; e-mail at aab7@psu.edu