New York — The Dow Jones News Fund presented veteran journalist, industry leader and educator Loren Ghiglione the 2023 Richard J. Levine Journalism Champion Award at its annual board meeting on Nov. 3.
The Journalism Champion Award was established in 2022 to honor those whose work supports and advances 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 Dow Jones News Fund staff and board members.
Ghiglione is professor emeritus at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and taught enterprise reporting, global journalism and media history. His long and distinguished career includes more than two decades as owner and editor of the Southbridge (Mass.) Evening News and president of its parent company, Worcester County Newspapers. During that time, he was elected president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE). At ASNE, he pushed for greater diversity in the news industry and initiated a landmark study of gays and lesbians in U.S. newsrooms.
Ghiglione, who was a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund intern in 1961, has championed diversity and inclusion in the media throughout his career. He was the 1987 recipient of the Ida B. Wells Award, presented annually to a media executive who has demonstrated a commitment to diversifying the nation’s newsrooms and improving the coverage of people and communities of color.
He led journalism programs at Emory University, the University of Southern California and Northwestern University’s Medill School. During his time as dean at Medill, he encouraged diversity in the school’s leadership posts and in faculty and staff hiring. When he left the position in 2006, more than 20 percent of Medill’s full-time faculty, 50 percent of staff directors and 35 percent of the entering undergraduate class were persons of color, the school reported. More recently, he introduced an oral history course at Northwestern titled “Native Americans Tell Their Stories” and served on the school’s Native American Outreach and Inclusion Task Force.
From 2006 to 2007, he served as president of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Ghiglione received his bachelor’s degree from Haverford College, a Ph.D. in American civilization from George Washington University, and a master’s degree in urban studies and law degree from Yale University. Ghiglione was a consultant to the Freedom Forum on its creation of The Newseum and has authored several books on journalism. He continues to write, producing a regular column for Martha’s Vineyard Magazine.
“Loren Ghiglione’s decades-long commitment to local news and journalism education, as well as his demonstrated values of ethics and diversity, make him an excellent recipient of the Richard J. Levine Journalism Champion Award,” said Dow Jones News Fund President Brent Jones. “His leadership and body of work align perfectly with the News Fund’s early-in-career talent mission and Dick Levine’s remarkable record of service and stewardship of high journalistic standards.”
Ghiglione was presented with the Journalism Champion Award on Friday at the Dow Jones News Fund Board of Directors awards luncheon.
