Thank you to Richard Griffiths as he steps down from Trusting News board of directors

Published on November 20, 2025November 20, 2025 by Joy Mayer | Reading Time: 3 minutes

In the summer of 2019, I was catching up with Charles Davis, dean of the journalism school at the University of Georgia. He mentioned that he’d included Trusting News strategies in a recent talk he’d given, and a retired journalist he knew had gotten fired up about what we do. When he emailed to introduce me to that fired up journalist, he said this:

“CC’d here is Richard Griffiths, who will make a fine addition to the team! You two talk.”

Boy, did we talk. I learned that Richard had spent 26 years at CNN, including at vice president and senior editorial director at CNN. I learned that his “retirement” included nonprofit board service and quite a bit of newsroom training, around the Southeast and internationally. And he said he wanted to include what Trusting News did in his work.

Was that okay? Could we send him some materials?

It was an easy yes, and we’ve been learning alongside him and from him ever since.

Here’s a brief look at what Richard did next:

• Read through our slide decks. Gave good feedback and incorporated the materials into his own trainings.
• Asked if he could come to one of our events and watch us in action.
• Flew to New Orleans to sit through a half-day workshop we were offering as part of the Online News Association conference.
• Had dinner with Lynn and me to give feedback on the training and tell us how important he thought the work was.
• Became our informal ambassador and evangelist, training on our behalf. A newsroom looking for his FOIA expertise was likely to get a heavy dose of trust-building as well.

And he just kept going. He checked in periodically to see what material we had that was new and what we were working on. He requested signup sheets for folks to subscribe to our newsletter, and we started getting emails with lists of journalists we should add to our list. He’s shown at the top of this post sharing his wisdom — and Trusting News strategies — with Franklin Pierce University students in New Hampshire in 2024.

And all of that was before we made the decision to set ourselves up as an independent nonprofit and needed to set up a board of directors.

When Trusting News Assistant Director Lynn Walsh and I made a list of who we could ask to serve on that inaugural board, Richard’s was the first name on the list.

We asked him. His email back, less than two hours later, said this: “Yes, of course.” Followed by a few caveats about his busy schedule. Followed by: “If you will still have me, honored.”

Richard has served as our board treasurer since we incorporated in May 2024. He’s helped us set up systems for record keeping and decision making around our finances, as would be expected. But he also helped us staff a booth at an ONA conference in Atlanta. He’s gotten us meetings with influential industry leaders. And he will take any question, just about any time — including during a rest break while riding his bike across Europe.

Richard’s term is up, and he is stepping down from our board of directors at the end of this year. Today is his last official board meeting.

While his formal obligation to us is coming to an end, we have a feeling he’ll still serve as our cheerleader, offer advice, and tell any journalist who will listen what they can be doing to earn trust.

Thank you, Richard.

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At Trusting News, we learn how people decide what news to trust and turn that knowledge into actionable strategies for journalists. We train and empower journalists to take responsibility for demonstrating credibility and actively earning trust through transparency and engagement. Learn more about our work, vision and team. Subscribe to our Trust Tips newsletter. Follow us on Twitter, BlueSky and LinkedIn.