Alexis Scott
Alexis Scott
M. Alexis Scott has a long career as a newspaper journalist, executive and visionary community leader. Currently a media consultant, she retired in 2014 after 16 years as publisher of the Atlanta Daily World, a newspaper founded by her grandfather in 1928. The paper became part of the Real Times Media family in 2012. Before ADW, Ms. Scott had a 22-year career with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Cox Enterprises, Inc., where she worked her way up from reporter to vice president/community affairs at the AJC, and director of diversity at Cox. She is also a featured commentator on The Georgia Gang, broadcast Sundays on FOX 5 Atlanta. In addition, she was part of the executive team that opened the Center for Civil and Human Rights in downtown Atlanta.
As publisher of the Atlanta Daily World, she had responsibility for its overall editorial content and general management. In 1932, the ADW, founded by W.A. Scott, II, became the nation's first successful black-owned daily newspaper in America. The paper, which targets the African-American community, now publishes once a week and can be accessed daily over the Internet at www.atlantadailyworld.com
As publisher of the ADW, Ms. Scott wrote a regular column, and had responsibility for business operations, including budgeting and forecasting, advertising sales and marketing, circulation and distribution, production, news content and social media. She launched the paper’s entry into digital media in 1999.
Ms. Scott is active in nonprofit organizations as well. She chairs the South View Preservation Foundation board, is a member of the board of directors of the High Museum and the Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasters. She is also a member of the Dogwood City Chapter of The Links, Inc. She has also served on the boards of the True Colors Theatre Company, Atlanta Children’s Shelter, Center for the Visually Impaired, the Atlanta Workforce Development Agency, the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust, the Friends of Spelman and others.
In addition to general community service, Ms. Scott has been active in nonprofit professional organizations. She is a member of the Georgia Chapter of the International Women’s Forum. She has chaired the Succession Planning Committee for the National Newspaper Publishers Association; was co-chair of the NNPA Editorial Committee; a past president of the Atlanta Press Club and the Atlanta Chapter of the National Association of Media Women; past vice-chair of the board of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education; and past treasurer of the Atlanta Chapter of Society of Professional Journalists. She also organized and chaired two diversity affinity groups -- one local and one national.
Ms. Scott has received many awards and honors, including the 2015 Women’s History Month award from Women Flying High and the Georgia Coalition of Black Women. She and The Scott Family were recognized as Legends in the Historic Westside Village 2015 exhibit at Walmart. She was inducted into the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau 2014 Hospitality Hall of Fame. She received a 2013 award for column writing from the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists. She was inducted along with her family into the inaugural Atlanta Press Club Hall of Fame in 2011. She was inducted into the 2007 Business Hall of Fame of the Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. She also received a 2007 Trailblazer Award in Honor of Coretta Scott King from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; the 2005 Millennium Pacesetter Award from the Atlanta Business League. She received an honorary doctor of humane letters from Argosy University in Atlanta in 2003.
She was named one of the "Top 100 Women of Influence" by the Atlanta Business League for more than 15 years. She was named the 1998 Pioneer Black Journalist by the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists. Ms. Scott is a member of the 1989 YWCA Academy of Women Achievers.
A native of Atlanta, Ms. Scott is a graduate of Booker T. Washington High School, and attended Barnard College in New York City and Spelman College in Atlanta. She also attended the Columbia University School of Journalism as a summer participant in the 1974 Michelle Clark Fellowship Program. She is a 1992 graduate of the Regional Leadership Institute and a 1991 graduate of Leadership Atlanta.
She has two sons. She and her family are members of First Congregational Church, U.C.C., where Ms. Scott served as presiding officer from 1982-1992, and was a member of the Sunday School staff for nearly 30 years.