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2010 PCLI Media Awards finalists announced
MONDAY, MAY 9, 2010 (MELVILLE, NY) — The Press Club of Long Island announced the finalists of the 2010 PCLI Media Awards. The winners will be announced at the annual Media Awards dinner on Thursday, June 10, at the Woodbury Country Club.
Wick named Outstanding Long Island Journalist
Steve Wick, Newsday’s Investigations and Enterprise editor, has been named the Press Club of Long Island’s 2010 Outstanding Long Island Journalist, the group’s highest honor to an individual. Read Wick’s history.
Levy wins Phil Spahn Award
Former Newsday reporter, editorial writer and columnist Lawrence C. Levy has been named the Press Club of Long Island’s Phil Spahn Award recipient.
Levy, now executive director of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, was chosen for his leadership, ability, and outstanding service to journalism during his 30-year career. Read Levy’s history.
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2009 Media Award winners
DOWNLOAD A PDF VERSION OF THE WINNERS LIST
WOODBURY, NY, JUNE 4 – News 12 Long Island News Director Patrick F. Dolan, Newsday and the Long Island Press won the top three awards when the Press Club of Long Island, the local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, announced the winners of its 2009 Media Awards contest at its annual awards dinner Thursday night.
Newsday and the Long Island Press were chosen as joint winners of this year’s Robert Greene Public Service Award. Newsday won for its investigative series, “The Pension and the Privileges,” which exposed the practice of private attorneys being reported as public employees in order to qualify for benefits. The Press was honored for “Long Highland,” which illuminated the growing problem of hard-core drug use in the region.
The 2009 Outstanding Long Island Journalist Award was presented to Dolan for achievement over his career. The award is PCLI’s highest honor to an individual.
Additionally, Dominick Miserandino, executive editor of TheCelebrityCafe.com, received the Phil Spahn Award, presented to a PCLI member who has demonstrated outstanding service to journalism, PCLI or to the community.
PCLI also gave this year’s Cub Reporter of the Year award to Brad Pareso of the Long Island Press.
The club also recognized the outstanding efforts of local college journalism students with two $1,000 college scholarships. They went to Robert Hahn and Denise Harwick, both from New York Institute of Technology.
Bay Shore High School student Jillian Ferraro received the $2,000 News 12 Long Island/Hank Logeman High School Journalism Award, named in honor of the late UPI reporter who was a mentor to many young journalists.
In all, PCLI gave out awards in 49 categories in print, television, radio and Internet journalism.
At the dinner, PCLI members elected the club’s leadership for 2009-2010.
The slate of officers is as follows:
John C. O’Connell, President
Meredith Daniels, Executive Vice President
Jamie Lynn Ryan, VP-Print
Michael DelGiudice, VP-Broadcast
Bill Bleyer, Treasurer
Diana DeRosa, Recording Secretary
Carl Corry, Corresponding Secretary
PICTURES FROM THE 2009 MEDIA AWARDS DINNER
History of the Awards
I believe the first awards were presented in 1982. The ceremony was at the Holiday Inn, Plainview, where we normally held our other PCLI meetings. There was no dinner. Just a bunch of seats in a small room with thin walls, where, as usual, we were being drowned out by the noise of a union meeting in an adjacent room. I believe Jim Bernstein (Newsday) was president at the time. I don’t think there were more than 40 people present.
The decision to create the Media Awards Contest was a very much a quicky thing. We were sitting around at an executive board meeting at club secretary Jan Hickman’s house discussing ways to raise money when someone (and I believe it was Bruce Reisman) suggested an awards competition that would bring us some bucks.
At that point in time, there was no charge to attend the annual Holiday Party since the Watermill Inn gave us everything for free, including dinner. There was also no Media Guide to provide additional income. Our treasury was based on dues, with PR people paying a higher rate. (Our exec board reflected this mix: Jan was PR for LILCO; Bruce, PR for NY Telephone; and Dave Woods, a former newsman and one of the club founders, PR for Stony Brook University.
At the meeting, Dave and I — then the only two members of PCLI who were in SPJ (as members of the Deadline Club) — were the only board members to vote against creating an awards program. We knew how much was involved in putting together the annual Deadline Club awards program and didn’t think we had enough of a body of members to carry it off. Back then, the Press Club was an independent organization…not affiliated with SPJ. I believe more than half of our members were in public relations. But the board voted to proceed, and as somewhat of a joke, voted to make Dave and I in charge of all aspects of the competition.
At the time, Dave was PR for Stony Brook and I was managing editor of the Smithtown News/North Shore News Group. We basically tried to copy the way the Deadline Club operated its award program, bringing judges to one site to make their choices. The first judging was held at Stony Brook.
Ironically, that decision opened the door to PCLI becoming a satellite of the Deadline Club and eventually an SPJ chapter on its own. But that is another piece of history.
Vicky Penner Katz Whitaker
Past President
