The California Press Foundation presented its 2023 annual awards for exemplary service to former and legendary California news executives during its 146th Annual Winter Meeting on Dec. 1 in Berkeley.
Michael Giangreco, a former publisher in the Bay Area, Auburn, Napa and Sonoma, presented the Philip N. McCombs Achievement Award for lifetime service to William J. Brehm, Jr., a former executive at news companies across California and the Midwest.
The award honors distinguished publishers who are no longer fully active in the industry but who have served their communities well for an extended period and have made lasting contributions to the industry and its traditions.
As longtime CEO and then chairman of Brehm Communications, Inc., Brehm oversaw a family-owned company that included dozens of newspaper properties across the West and Midwest. Prior to their eventual sale in 2022, BCI's California holdings included a dozen newspapers.
Cal Press has presented the McCombs Achievement Award since 1989.
Bill Drummond, journalism professor at the IUC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, accepted the Mark Twain Award for Journalism Excellence in California on behalf of the family of the late Ruben Salazar, the Los Angeles Times columnist and former reporter whose groundbreaking work shed light on the struggles of Mexican Americans in Los Angeles. Salazar died when a tear-gas projectile struck him during the National Chicano Moratorium March against the Vietnam War on Aug. 29, 1970, in East Los Angeles.
The Mark Twain Award, presented since 2010, honors those from the writerly world: editors, writers, cartoonists whose journalistic work, either regional or statewide in nature, challenged the status quo. Nominees may have rendered service anytime from the beginning of newspapering in California to the present time.
Tom Newton, former Cal Press executive director, inducted the late Newt Wallace into the California Newspaper Hall of Fame. Wallace was publisher of the Winters Express from 1947 to 1983 and was considered the epitome of a small-town newspaper publisher.
Cal Press Director Marty Weybret inducted the late George Savage into the Hall of Fame. Savage was publisher of the Inyo Register, Lone Pine Progress-Citizen and lnyo lndependent. He also had been managing editor of the Claremont Courier and assistant to the publishers of the San Bernardino Sun-Telegram.
The Hall of Fame inducts two each year: one who has died within the past decade and one who passed more than a decade ago. The Hall of Fame inductions began in 1957.
Cal Press Director Jim Ewert presented the Jack Bates Award for distinguished service to the California Press to Jean-Paul Jassy, partner, Jassy Vick Carolan LLP. The award honors an individual for distinguished service to the California Press through effective leadership in addressing newspaper challenges and assisting journalism education.
Cal Press has presented the Jack Bates Award since 2007.
During the Winter Meeting, members and guests learned about the careers of former college students who had been supported with Cal Press internship grants. Linda S. Bowen, a Cal Press director, led the discussion that featured these former interns: Robin Epley, now at The Sacramento Bee; Cresencio Rodriguez-Delgado, now at KVPR public radio, Fresno; and Alexis Terrazas, now at El Tecolote, San Francisco.
Cal Press Director Dr. Paulette Brown-Hinds moderated a discussion on how to engage community foundations in support of local news. The panelists were Armando Carmona, Inland Empire Journalism Hub + Fund; Maya Chupkov, California Common Cause; and Mario Lugay, Justice Funders.
Cal Press Directors Linda S. Bowen and Darleen Principe provided an overview of the Journalism Education Collaborative, a statewide database that aims to connect journalism educators and students to the industry.
State Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) updated guests on the progress of AB 886, the California Journalism Preservation Act.
Cal Press Director Jim Boren hosted a discussion with Geeta Anand, dean and professor at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, about trends in California journalism education and the California Local News Fellowship program.