A Hopkinsville newswoman and a legendary Central Kentucky newsman have been named recipients of the Al Smith Award for 2012.
The recipients are Jennifer P. Brown, opinion editor of the Kentucky New Era in Hoo[kinsville, and Max Heath, retired vice president of Landmark Community
Newspapers, will be honored at the Al Award Dinner on Friday, July 20, at the Center for the Arts at Eastern Kentucky University.
Al Smith is forever associated with Russellville and the Land of Logan. He was editor and publisher of the News-Democrat and the founder of The Logan Leader. His widespread Al Smith Communications was headquartered on Russellville's Public Square.
The Bluegrass Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues have established the Al Smith
Award, presented annually for a career of public service through community journalism in Kentucky, or anywhere by a current or former Kentuckian, with
preference given to those outside metropolitan areas.
The award's first recipient, in 2011, was its namesake, Albert P. Smith Jr., who owned weekly newspapers in Kentucky and Tennessee, was
founding host of KET's “Comment on Kentucky” and was the main founder of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, whose national advisory
board he chairs. He is the author of a memoir, Wordsmith: My Life in Journalism, published in 2011.
Net proceeds from the Al Smith Award Dinner will fund the continued operations of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues and the work of
the Bluegrass Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, which funds scholarships for student journalists in the region.
Al Cross, the director of the Institute and a former Russellville journalist himself, will be the master of ceremonies. Other speakers will be Taylor
Hayes, publisher of the Kentucky New Era, Benjy Hamm, executive editor of Landmark Community Newspapers and Smith himself.
For more than a decade, Jennifer Brown has been the public face of the newsroom at the Kentucky New Era, the daily newspaper in Hopkinsville. Promoted to
editor in 2009, she set in motion a culture change that made her staff believe that great journalism can be practiced anywhere, anytime, then helped make
it happen. She helped make the paper one of Kentucky's most active fighters and community advocates for open government. She promoted narrative writing, in
which she had won a national award, and recruited local contributors. In 2011, when the independently owned paper was planning major changes, she
volunteered to become opinion editor. In that post, she has given the paper a strong editorial voice, generating more letters and community contributions,
and she has continued to be a resource for the newsroom and a mentor for young reporters.
Few journalists have had as much positive impact on as many communities as Max Heath. When he retired as vice president of Landmark Community Newspapers
Inc., he left a strong legacy of leadership during his years recruiting, training and advising editors as executive editor. LCNI, based in Shelbyville, is
nationally recognized for its support of strong news and editorial efforts at its 50-plus papers, most of them weeklies in rural areas. He is primary
author of the manual, What Makes a Good LCNI Newspaper, a guide to editorial and business success in community journalism. He began his career in
his hometown of Campbellsville where he rose from teenage sports reporter to editor. In retirement, he has continued contributing to the health and future
of community newspapers as a consultant to them on increasingly critical Postal Service issues.
Tickets should be ordered no later than July 6. Dinner tickets are not tax-deductible but contributions to the Institute are. Questions?
Call IRJCI Director Al Cross at 859-257-3744.