Wednesday, November 4, 2026, from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.
PRSA November Program: Changes in the Media Industry Panel Discussion
Join us for an enlightening panel discussion on changes in the media industry. Hear from panelist Ellis Smith, President of the Times Free Press; Mary Helen Montgomery with the new non-profit local news source launching in 2027 – Tennessee Valley Today; and Emily Compton, Manager of Content & Engagement, WTCI PBS. Hear how they are adapting to provide information to our community and how we as public relations professionals can be great partners.
Additionally, before we dive into the panel, Kristyna Selph, APR, is bringing a little PRSA ICON inspiration back to Chattanooga with some of her top takeaways from this year’s conference!
MEETING LOCATION: Food City 1375 Broad St, Chattanooga, TN 37402. ENTRANCE – Please enter from Broad Street at Suite 207. This door leads directly to the elevator instead of going through the store.
PARKING INFORMATION: While the event is hosted at Food City, they ask that parking directly in front of the store is reserved for shoppers. There is ample on street parking around Food City, multiple surface level parking lots nearby along with a large parking garage next to the Chattanoogan hotel across the street from the store.
SPEAKERS:
Ellis Smith is President of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, where he oversees day-to-day operations following the newspaper’s 2026 sale to Craig and Max Fuller. Ellis’s career has spanned newsrooms, city government, and media entrepreneurship, giving him a rare vantage point on the challenges facing local journalism and the communities it serves.
He began his career at the Times Free Press in 2010 as a business reporter covering flooring, healthcare, banking, real estate, and the automotive industry, and later became the paper’s digital editor. He was part of a team that created “The Poverty Puzzle,” an investigation into economic hardship in Chattanooga, which was recognized as a 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist in Explanatory Reporting. He went on to serve as the general manager and editor of The Hawk Eye in Burlington, Iowa, and as general manager of media for FreightWaves.
Ellis later moved into public service, working on Mayor Tim Kelly’s campaign and then serving as the City of Chattanooga’s Director of Special Projects and Director of Intergovernmental and External Affairs, where he worked on economic development, civic engagement, and city-community partnerships before returning to lead the Times Free Press.
A Marietta, Georgia native, Ellis holds a bachelor’s degree in mass communication from the University of West Georgia and has lived in Chattanooga for over a decade.
Mary Helen Montgomery is a local journalist and nonprofit leader, born and raised in Chattanooga. She is building Tennessee Valley Today, a nonprofit local news source launching in spring 2027 as part of the Deep South Today network. She previously created and edited Chattamatters, a civic information platform. Earlier in her career, she reported for the Chattanooga Times Free Press and WUTC.
Emily Compton is a Chattanooga native, and serves as Manager of Content & Engagement at WTCI PBS, where she has worked for the past 17 years. Her work at the station has encouraged a deep love of her community and a passion for telling the stories of the people who give it life. She has received three Midsouth Emmy® awards for her work in long- and short-form documentary storytelling, as well as three Public Media Awards from the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) for her work in content creation and community engagement events.
Emily is a regularly contributing Producer and Editor for the WTCI PBS short documentary series, Greater Chattanooga. Before and After, a documentary from this series that told the story of Ukrainian artists Denis Sarazhin and Victoria Kalaichi, was featured on PBS News Hour in 2022. Emily is also Producer of The A List with Alison Lebovitz, which was nominated for a Midsouth Emmy® award in 2022. In 2015, Emily produced her first long-form documentary, From the Streets to the Stage: The Journey of Fredrick Davis, which received a Midsouth Emmy® award and was distributed nationally by PBS.
Emily is passionate about the critical role of public media in communities across the country, the arts, and local storytelling. She has served on the Board of Directors for the J.A. Henry Community YMCA and Chattanooga Girls Rock.