WKU Student Publications alumni Jabin Botsford and Demetrius Freeman will deliver the closing keynote in October at MediaFest25, the National College Media Convention, officials announced Tuesday.
Botsford and Freeman, who were roommates at WKU and staff members at the same time at Student Pubs, shooting for both the College Heights Herald and the Talisman, will speak at 11 a.m. EDT, Saturday, Oct. 18, at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C., where the convention is taking place. Both now work for The Washington Post, where Freeman covers politics and Botsford is covering the White House.
Their remarks will immediately precede the Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker Awards ceremony, where the Talisman is a finalist for two Pacemakers — Multiplatform and Feature Magazine — and the Herald is a finalist for the Newsmagazine Pacemaker.
According to their Post biographies:
- Botsford was part of the team that won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News for coverage of the 2024 attempted assassination of Donald Trump. He has worked for the Post since 2015. He also covered the White House during Trump’s first term.
- Freeman is a staff political photojournalist who covered the White House during Joe Biden’s term. Before joining the Post, Freeman was a freelance photographer in New York City and also worked for the mayor of New York.
MediaFest is sponsored by ACP, the College Media Association and the Society of Professional Journalists.