Dr. Paulette Brown-Hinds, publisher of the BlackVoice News in Riverside, is the Justus F. Craemer Newspaper Executive of the Year, the California Press Foundation announced Dec. 2 at its 145thAnnual Winter Meeting.
Craemer Award recipients are publishers, editors-in-chief and equivalents who have involved themselves in the directions of the editorial and news side of their newspapers by showing exceptional editorial achievement. Their newspaper has made an impact on its community or influenced local, state or national concerns as a result of their journalistic effort.
Brown-Hinds, pictured above, is the 57th recipient of the award, which began in 1967. Cal Press Director Linda S. Bowen presented the award to Brown-Hinds.
Cal Press Director Becky Clark presented the Philip N. McCombs Achievement Award
for lifetime service to Ronald Redfern. Redfern, pictured below, was a former publisher in Riverside, Orange County and nationally.
The award, presented since 1989, 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.
Voice of OC Founder and Publisher Norberto Santana, Jr. presented the Mark Twain Award for Journalism Excellence in California to the late Tracy Wood. Wood, pictured below, was former senior writer at Voice of OC and a groundbreaking Vietnam War correspondent.
This posthumous 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.
Attorney Paul Nicholas Boylan inducted Tim Crews into the California Newspaper Hall of Fame. Crews (1943-2020), pictured below, was the founder and publisher of the Sacramento Valley Mirror in Willows, Glenn County.
Cal Press Director Will Fleet inducted Eli Isenberginto the Hall of Fame. Isenberg (1913-2000), pictured below, was editor and publisher of the old Monterey Park Progress in Los Angeles County, from 1946 to 1978.
The Hall of Fame, launched in 1957, posthumouslyinducts two honorees each year: one who has died within the previous 10 years and one from more than 10 years.
Tom Newton, former Cal Press executive director, presented The Jack Bates Award for distinguished service to the California Press to Adriana Chavira, journalism adviser at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School, who faced disciplinary proceedings when she stood by her students’ editorial decisions.
Chavira, pictured above, is a former reporter and has advised the Pearl Post since 2009. This award honors an individual for effective leadership in addressing newspaper challenges and assisting journalism education.
During the Winter Meeting, a panel presentation highlighted the work done by former Cal Press interns.
Pictured above, moderator Todd Bishop, co-founder of GeekWire, a Seattle-based national technology news site, interned in 1996 at The Fresno Bee while a student at CSU Chico. The panelists:
Meghan Bobrowsky, pictured below, was an intern in 2019. She now works at the Wall Street Journal.
Daniel Miller, pictured below, was an intern in 2004. He now works for the Los Angeles Times.
Jeremy Herb, pictured below, was an intern in 2007. He now works for CNN.
The Cal Press mission is to guard the history andtraditions of California journalism, to recognize and honor contemporary achievements, to assure the future of California journalism through encouragement of education and to provide a social and educational forum for its members.