Ed Trayes is a professor of communications and director of the Master of Journalism program in the School of Communications and Theater at Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He joined the Temple faculty in l967 and has taught a wide range of graduate and undergraduate courses including news editing, photography, media management, communication research, publication graphics and design, and Electronic Information Gathering. The Journalist's Compass is an outgrowth of his interest in EIG and a desire to involve faculty, students, and journalism professionals in the exploration of cyberspace.

EIG is a new area of study within the Department of Journalism, Public Relations and Advertising. Three new courses have been developed by Trayes. These include a survey course introducing all majors in the department to the possibilities, promise and potential of the Internet and World Wide Web; an advanced undergraduate course with an emphasis on producing stories and supporting materials (charts, tables, graphs) based on computer-assisted reporting and editing efforts, and a four-semester-hour graduate course that combines and goes beyond what is done at the undergraduate level in two three-credit courses.

Trayes is co-founder and director of the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Editing and Minority Intern Program (l967 to present). This effort seeks to upgrade the editing talent pool nationwide. Participating newspapers include The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal and Newsday. Trayes also heads the photography for the mass media program at Temple. He co-founded and headed M.A. and Ph.D. communications programs within SCAT.

Trayes also is the founding editor of Mass Communication Review, an international journal he edited from l972 until l986. His main research and writing interests are in media management, newspaper content, editing, and minority hiring and recruiting in the mass media.

A consultant for more than 25 years in the areas of publications (writing/editing, photography and presentation), media content, and research, Trayes has worked with newspapers, broadcast operations, corporations, and not-for-profit organizations across the U.S. as well as in Mexico, Central America and South America.