Aric Johnson, Arizona Republic Editor-in-Residence

Aric Johnson is the Cronkite School’s first Arizona Republic Editor-in-Residence, overseeing students in a multimedia reporting class in which they report breaking news for azcentral.com, Arizona’s most viewed news Web site.

Johnson joined the Cronkite School in January of 2007 and will be on loan to the school for the remainder of the year. He works out of the Republic’s newsroom, coaching students and editing their work. He also arranges sessions for students with newsmakers and reporters.

Johnson graduated from the University of Southern California in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He remained in the Los Angeles area for his first full-time journalism job as a city hall reporter for the Pasadena Star-News. His first day on the job coincided with the Northridge earthquake. During his time in Pasadena, he covered a number of breaking news stories, including the federal phase of the Rodney King trial.

Johnson left for the Reno Gazette-Journal in 1995 to work as a night police reporter and went on to be a business reporter and an assistant city editor for the paper. He received the newspaper’s annual achievement award for business coverage. After two years, he moved to the Fresno Bee in Fresno, Calif., where he worked as an assistant metro editor, as the Bee’s bureau chief in Visalia, Calif., and as the paper’s business editor.

He came to The Arizona Republic in 2002 to serve as an assistant business editor. He also held posts as education editor and editor of the Tempe Republic before taking his current position as editor of the ASU program.

Johnson and his wife, Angel, a neonatal nurse, live with their 4-year-old son, Christian, in Gilbert.