About Us

The SaportaReport Team:

Maria Saporta, editor, is a longtime Atlanta business, civic and urban affairs journalist with a deep knowledge of our city, our region and state. Since 2008, she has written a weekly column and news stories for the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Prior to that, she spent 27 years with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, becoming its business columnist in 1991. Maria received her Master’s degree in urban studies from Georgia State and her Bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University. Maria was born in Atlanta to European parents and has two young adult children.

Chris Schroder, publisher, manages business matters and writes a weekly column for SaportaReport while also counseling clients at Schroder Public Relations in Atlanta. Before starting his PR firm in 2002, Chris worked for six Southeast daily newspapers (including the AJC, Daily Report and Charlotte Observer) as a reporter, editor, marketing and advertising executive before starting his own chain of neighborhood newspapers in Virginia-Highland, Buckhead and Downtown Atlanta in 1994. He is a graduate of The Westminster Schools and the University of Virginia, is married to Jan Butsch Schroder and has four young adult children and step-children.

David Pendered, managing editor, is an Atlanta journalist with 30 years experience reporting on the region’s urban affairs, from Atlanta City Hall to the state Capitol. Since 2008, he has written for print and digital publications, and advised on media and governmental affairs. Previously, he spent more than 26 years with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and won awards for his coverage of schools and urban development. David graduated from North Carolina State University and was a Western Knight Center Fellow. David was born in Pennsylvania, grew up in North Carolina and is married to a fifth-generation Atlantan.

Eleanor Ringel Cater, movie critic, was the film critic for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for almost 30 years. She was nominated multiple times for a Pulitzer Prize. She won the Best of Cox Critic, IMAGE Film & Video and Women In Film awards. An Atlanta native, she graduated from Westminster and Brown University. She was the critic on WXIA’s Noonday, a member of Entertainment Weekly’s Critics Grid and wrote TV Guide’s movie/DVD. She is member of the National Society of Film Critics and currently talks about movies on WMLB and writes the Time Out column for the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Michelle Hiskey, columnist, is a veteran writer whose stories of recovery and redemption bridge unexpected places and people across Atlanta. She has freelanced for CNN.com, NCAA.org, ESPN.com, the New York Times and several nonprofits. She currently writes for the Georgia State University Foundation. Before 2008, she worked at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for 22 years as a sports reporter, columnist and Sunday feature writer. Michelle received her Bachelor’s degree in English from Duke University, which she attended on golf and journalism scholarships. She lives in Decatur with her husband Ben Smith, also a journalist, and their two daughters.

Tom Baxter, columnist, has written about politics and the South for more than four decades. He was national editor and chief political correspondent at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and later edited The Southern Political Report, an online publication, for four years. Tom was the consultant for the 2008 election night coverage sponsored jointly by Current TV, Digg and Twitter, and a 2011 fellow at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas. He recently surveyed the impact of Georgia’s immigration law in a report for the Center for American Progress. Tom and his wife, Lili, have three adult children and six grandchildren.

Sarah Funderburk, account coordinator, recently received her Bachelor’s degree in public relations from Auburn University. At Auburn, she was a member of a social sorority, Auburn University’s Public Relations Council of Alabama, the Student Alumni Association and a features writer for Auburn University’s Glomerata. She completed an internship with the Auburn University Division of Student Affairs and BRAVE Public Relations, before beginning as an Account Coordinator at Schroder Public Relations. She is experienced in website design and editing, WordPress, Flash and Adobe applications, video recording and editing, writing and social media. Sarah is from Tallassee, Ala. and currently lives in Buckhead.

Jeff Cochran, advertising sales, is an Atlanta native who has spent more than 30 years in advertising, first with Peaches Records and Tapes and then for 27 years with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Jeff accepted a buy-out from the AJC in August 2008 and has since been working with longtime friends with the AJC, including Maria, who are establishing their own websites. Jeff also contributes articles to Likethedew.com, another site that features former AJC colleagues and other local writers.

Our Pledge to Readers:

Because the world of journalism and communications is ever changing with new channels and ways to deliver information, we want to maintain as much transparency as possible.  We will strive to maintain high journalistic standards and will disclose any vested interests or relationships in stories and columns on SaportaReport.com. Advertising is being sold on the site, but there will be no quid-pro-quo that advertisers will receive special treatment on the site. But it is highly likely that some of our advertisers on the site would have views parallel views to ours. To keep the line between advertising and editorial content separate, Jeff will handle the selling of all ads on the site.