NEWS

"Grammar Girl" joins UNR faculty as entrepreneur guru

Lenita Powers
RGJ

Mignon Fogarty, better known to many as "The Grammar Girl," is focusing more on business savvy these days than on syntax in her new position as a faculty member at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Fogarty began her job this week as the Chair in Media Entrepreneurship at the Reynolds School of Journalism and Center for Advanced Media Studies.

Having turned her passion for punctuation and grammar into one of one of the most successful podcasting networks, the founder of the "Quick and Dirty Tips" network plans to work with journalism and advertising students to hone the business side of their educations.

"The media business is changing," said Fogarty, who is 47 and moved from Arizona to Reno with her husband, Patrick, about five years ago.

"A lot of schools used to be organized around print, radio and television. Now, the focus is not so much on the media outlet as on the skills learned and on the business side of the media," she said. "So, this new generation of journalists will be a part of this overwhelming change in the industry."

As part of her job, Fogarty said she wants to strengthen the relationship between the university and the community.

"There's already so much going on in Reno, and this is an exciting time to be involved in entrepreneurship with a lot also going on at the university," she said.

Fogarty was a guest lecturer in UNR Professor Nico Colombant's radio class last year when he urged her to apply for the Reynolds Media Entrepreneurship chair.

"I talked to each student about the podcasts they were creating and about how they could turn them into a business," she said. "Nico pulled me aside and said, 'You have to apply for this position.' "

Fogarty said she hasn't abandoned her role as the watchdog of good grammar and punctuation.

"I'm Grammar Girl, and I'm still doing that," she said. "... but this was too perfect for me to resist."