John Altenbern is President of Crawford Johnson & Northcott, Inc., (CJ&N) an Iowa-based media market research and consulting company. He works with media leaders throughout the U.S. to provide insight on how to grow audience and engagement. 

John is a 1979 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Iowa with degrees in Journalism and Political Science. He received a scholarship from the Iowa Broadcaster’s Association and a national scholarship from the Radio Television News Director’s Association. He received an MBA from Iowa in 1997. 

He worked in local television stations both in on-air and management positions in Orlando, Tampa, Minneapolis and Cedar Rapids, receiving numerous awards and an Emmy for documentary writing. John then worked for nearly ten years as a news consultant and manager at Frank Magid Associates in Marion, Iowa before leaving to found a start-up business. He has been with CJ&N since 2000. 

John is a long-time Professional Advisory Board member, having served for a decade as its President, and has also served as an SJMC adjunct instructor.