Public editor

Office phone: 757-446-2475

Email: public.editor@pilotonline.com

Joyce Hoffmann is the public editor of The Virginian-Pilot and writes a bi-weekly op-ed column about journalism accuracy and fairness issues.

The Virginian-Pilot's eighth reader representative, Joyce Hoffmann, is the first who's truly independent of the news staff and the owners.

Hoffmann teaches aspiring journalists at Old Dominion University and manages ODU's journalism instruction in the College of Arts and Letters.

Joyce brings to the public editor's position experience in the newsroom and the classroom. She learned her craft covering local news at the Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., and her freelance work has appeared in many of the nation's leading big-city papers. She came to ODU in 1994 after earning her Ph.D. in American Studies at New York University, and she has been teaching media law and ethics classes, among other journalism courses, almost since her arrival.

Her latest book, "On their Own, Women Journalists and the American Experience in Vietnam," comes out this spring.