Jerome Gray Takes Over Metro's Press Office

[editor]

This is mentioned briefly in another thread, but since a lot of people have opinions of Jerome Gray, and he is a big name in Houston, I felt he deserved his own thread:

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METRO HIRES ANCHOR/REPORTER JEROME GRAY TO HEAD PRESS OFFICE

The NEW METRO is pleased to announce that veteran news anchor and reporter Jerome Gray has accepted the position of vice president and senior press officer for the authority.

Gray, a media professional with more than 20 years of experience in Houston, most recently worked as a senior news editor and anchor at KPRC-TV, Channel 2. Most Houstonians became familiar with Gray’s Emmy-award winning work during his 17 years as a broadcast journalist at KHOU-TV, Channel 11.

“We’re excited that Jerome will be leading our press office, lending his expertise as we continue to improve the reputation of the NEW METRO as an agency that is open and transparent,” said George Greanias, the authority’s president & CEO. “Jerome understands that to achieve our strategic priority of becoming a trusted community partner, we have to work hand-in-hand with the media and be responsive to the needs and concerns of this community.”

During his career, Gray has received close to three dozen awards for his work on-air. This includes an Emmy for a series of reports on Africa, an Emmy and a National Telly Award for a jazz special, and a Texas Associated Press Award for coverage of South Africa's first all-race elections. He has also won awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, United Press International, the Houston Press Club and the Virginia Associated Press.

“I am thrilled to be joining the NEW METRO team,” Gray said. “It’s a great opportunity to help share the story of what’s happening at the authority and how it benefits the community. I look forward to working with the media to convey accurate information regarding transportation issues and the NEW METRO.”

Gray is very involved in community projects and has received more than 200 awards for community service. He has served on more than a half dozen boards for nonprofit, community-based organizations, and especially enjoys projects that provide positive role models for children.

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IMO, the #1 quick and easy thing Jerome can do to improve Metro is to have it stop sending out press releases in Microsoft Word format. PDF is ubiquitous. DOCX is almost universal. Heck, even plain text would be better than being able to see all the revisions made to the release before it comes out: