MISSOULA –

Wall Street Journal London Bureau Chief Bruce Orwall will deliver a lecture titled “An Old-School Playbook for Journalism’s Digital Crossroads” at 7 p.m. Monday, March 18, in the University Center Theater at The University of Montana.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is the fifth installment of the UM School of Journalism’s annual Jeff Cole Distinguished Lecture Series. The series honors Cole, a Butte native who graduated from the School of Journalism in 1980. He was the aeronautics editor at The Wall Street Journal when he was killed in a plane crash while on assignment in January 2001.

Orwall has been the Journal’s London Bureau chief since 2009. He leads a team of reporters that has been involved in a succession of big stories, such as the ongoing European financial crisis, various banking scandals, the rise and fall of WikiLeaks, the phone-hacking scandal at News Corp.’s British newspapers, fallout from the Arab Spring, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the royal wedding.

He formerly was based in Los Angeles, covering entertainment and media industries for the Journal. In 2004, he became the Los Angeles Bureau chief, overseeing topics and industries such as immigration, Enron, aerospace and the gambling industry.

Before joining the Journal in 1995, Orwall worked at the St. Paul Pioneer Press and The Herald in Everett, Wash. He worked with Cole at all three newspapers.

“We’re anxious to have Bruce on campus to interact with students, faculty and the Missoula community,” said Denise Dowling, interim dean of the School of Journalism. “He started his career in the Pacific Northwest at a small newspaper and has worked at a variety of newspapers in a variety of jobs. His experiences will resonate with our students, who soon will enter the workforce in an unsettled but exciting time for the profession.”

The lecture series is supported by the Jeff Cole Legacy Fund, which also offers an annual scholarship and a spring dinner for students who work at the Montana Kaimin, UM’s independent student newspaper.

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Contact: Denise Dowling, interim dean, UM School of Journalism, 406-243-4143, denise.dowling@umontana.edu.