Pictured (L-R): Brent Jones, DJNF board president; Walter Middlebrook, professor of practice, Pennsylvania State University; Shirley Carswell, DJNF executive director

New York — The Dow Jones News Fund named veteran journalist, recruiter and educator Walter Middlebrook as the recipient of the 2024 Richard J. Levine Journalism Champion Award on Friday.

The Journalism Champion Award was established in 2022 to honor those whose work supports the perpetuation of a strong and diverse free press. The award also pays tribute to the late News Fund president and longtime Dow Jones news executive Richard J. Levine and his contributions to journalism. Levine, who died in March 2022, was a steadfast champion of the important role of a free press in society, having spent his entire career as a reporter, editor and manager at The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones. The recipient of the annual award is selected from a group of nominees by a committee of News Fund staff and board members.

Middlebrook, the Foster Professor of Practice at Pennsylvania State University, is a former senior editor and newsroom manager whose four-decade career includes work at several major daily news organizations.

Joe Grimm, a journalism professor at Michigan State University and longtime friend, said in his nomination of Middlebrook: “A long-term relational recruiter, Middlebrook has taught, recruited, hired and supervised thousands of journalists and students, and organized job fairs to diversify the whole industry. Many Middlebrook mentees lead newsrooms today.”

Middlebrook, a former assistant managing editor at The Detroit News, led an award-winning metro news desk and investigations team before joining the Penn State University faculty in fall 2020. He was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame in April 2023.

His career includes editing and writing positions at The New York Times, Newsday/New York Newsday, USA Today, the Minneapolis Star and the St. Paul Dispatch and Pioneer Press. He was among the staff at Newsday that won a Pulitzer Prize for spot news in 1992 for its coverage of a deadly subway crash in Manhattan.

Training the next generation of journalists has been an integral part of Middlebrook’s work. He is former director of Times Mirror’s two-year METPRO/Editing program that identified and trained minority candidates as copy editors. Middlebrook also taught at Michigan State and Hofstra universities and at the Maynard Institute Editing Program for Minority Journalists.

In 2018 the Detroit Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) presented Middlebrook a Lifetime Achievement Award. He currently serves as treasurer of Detroit SPJ and vice president of the Rosa Parks Scholarship Foundation board of directors. He also sits on the boards of the Fair Media Council of Long Island, the Daily Collegian at Penn State University and the Board of Student Publications at the University of Michigan.

Middlebrook is a lifetime member of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and serves as a coach and mentor for the Detroit Writing Room. The native of Memphis, Tenn., is a graduate of Boston University.

“The Dow Jones News Fund is delighted to present the Levine Award to Walter Middlebrook, whose distinguished career as a journalist, educator and recruiter has positively impacted countless journalists of many backgrounds across the country,” said Brent Jones, president of the News Fund. “The board of directors and I look forward to celebrating with him.”

Middlebrook was presented the Journalism Champion Award, which includes a $2,500 prize, on Friday at the Dow Jones News Fund Board of Directors awards luncheon.

About The Richard J. Levine Journalism Champion Award:

The Richard J. Levine Journalism Champion Award was established in August 2022 to honor those whose work supports the perpetuation of a strong and diverse free press. The award also pays tribute to the late News Fund president and longtime Dow Jones news executive Richard J. Levine and his contributions to journalism. The annual award is funded by contributions from the Dow Jones News Fund, the Dow Jones Foundation, The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Corp. Individuals and other organizations may also contribute by earmarking DJNF donations for the Richard J. Levine Journalism Champion Award.