Alex Fong
Current Title: Creative Director and Masthead Director
Organization: San Francisco Chronicle
Country: United States
Candidate for: Vice President
Vision for SND
In three years, we have made a great deal of progress in making SND more accessible by reducing our membership rates, by carving out membership tiers for emerging professionals and by creating a cost of living-adjusted rate for journalists and designers in other parts of the world. There is still more to be done, which is why I’m running for a second term.
I hope to revitalize our education outreach, including continued work with universities via the American Collegiate Press for which I have given lectures and critiques on the behalf of SND. We also need more content, particularly in a time when news design education is still working to better equip young designers with digital skills, and when there are often few dedicated resources in helping veteran print design journalists make the leap into digital. In addition, we need more news and sources of inspiration, which I have helped facilitate by writing or editing posts for the website myself.
SND could also benefit from more strategic partnerships with other organizations in the journalism space. I would like to begin forging these connections.
I will also continue to press for more reform in our operations. I most recently crafted a new schedule for Board meetings that makes participation less of a burden for members who live outside of North America and often had to attend meetings very late at night or very early in the morning. I will also work on efforts to improve our website and our membership platforms.
Finally, I hope to work with the Creative Competition committee for upcoming in-person events that help us get together and exchange ideas among ourselves and with the broader journalism community.
About Alex
Alex K. Fong is SND’s current vice president and led efforts to make the organization more accessible and inclusive by lowering membership fees. He is the creative director and a masthead editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, where he oversees a multidisciplinary team of designers, graphic artists, graphics reporters and developers.
His nearly two decades of experience in the news industry has included leadership roles in newsrooms in the United States and overseas. In 2012, he collaborated on the redesign of some 80 daily print newspapers for Digital First Media, including the Los Angeles Daily News and the El Paso Times. During a four-year stint in China, Alex advocated for greater rigor in the practice of visual journalism and led the award-winning redesign of the Shanghai Star.
Alex has mentored journalism students at the City College of San Francisco (where he was once a student) and currently serves on the journalism department’s advisory board.
Alex is a musician in his spare time. He founded the post-punk band The Paper Tigers while living in Beijing. He builds his own audio electronics and has studied audio engineering and production privately at a recording studio near Oakland’s Jack London Square.