MOUNT DESERT, March 13, 2023, - This year’s Yankee Quill Awards will be presented at a luncheon as part of the annual convention of the New England Newspaper and Press Association on Saturday, May 6, at the Westin Waltham Boston Hotel in Waltham, Mass.
You may do no bigger honor to recognize The Quietside Journal than to contribute to this luncheon.
https://www.nenpa.com/yankee-quill-registration/
‘The Yankee Quill, which began in 1959, is bestowed annually by the Academy of New England Journalists through the auspices of the New England Society of News Editors. It is considered the highest individual honor awarded to a journalist in New England. Winners are selected based on a history of lifetime achievement.
“Selection for the award is not based on any single achievement, or for doing your job each day, but rather on the broad influence for good over the course of a career,” the society said.
One fellow recipient was a dear colleague at the Boston Globe Steve Curwood, who actually seemed to appreciate my editing back then. We were pups in the gestation of better things to come.
Here are the announcements:
“Curwood received the award for his pioneering work and wide influence in broadening the understanding and importance of environmental journalism. After completing his A.B. at Harvard, he went onto become editor of The Bay State Banner newspaper. In addition to his stints at the Boston Phoenix and the Boston Globe, he was the founder of the WBUR/NPR program Living On Earth, a board member and treasurer of the Society of Environmental Journalists, and has long been active with the National Association of Black Journalists. He is also a Lecturer in Environmental Science and Public Policy at Harvard University and a professor of practice at UMass, Boston.
“Anne Galloway, founder and editor-at-large of VTDigger, was honored for her contributions to Vermont journalism. Galloway founded the news site in 2009 after a long career in newspapers, including as Sunday editor of the Rutland Herald and Times Argus. VTDigger has grown from a $16,000-a-year nonprofit website with no employees to a $2.8 million nonprofit online news operation with a staff of 32. Galloway, who started her newspaper career at The Hardwick Gazette, has won numerous awards and changed the journalism landscape in Vermont and beyond. She is my role model.
“Mal Leary is being recognized as the connection between Maine residents and their state government for 45 years. He worked as a freelance correspondent for radio stations all across Maine and has also written for its major newspapers. His advocacy is so fierce and his knowledge of state law so deep, he has occasionally convinced state officials to squelch plans to introduce rules that would be antithetical to the public’s right to know. In recent years, Leary has extended his advocacy work to a national scale, serving as a president of the National Freedom of Information Coalition.
“Lincoln Millstein earns the Yankee Quill award for the major imprint that he has left on local journalism’s digital presence in New England, and far beyond. After serving as city editor, business editor, and managing editor for features at the Boston Globe, he co-founded Boston.com and shepherded it through its formative years as CEO. He helped build the newspaper industry’s first forays into serious digital news businesses. He went on to run digital for Hearst Newspapers and spearheaded industrywide digital initiatives including the Yahoo! Consortium and the industry’s first private digital advertising exchange. But what stands out the most is his undying excitement about tough journalism and great storytelling.”
The Yankee Quill has a practice of honoring posthumously someone who was forgotten by the then establishment.
“Robert Bailey Thomas (1766-1846), founder of the Old Farmer’s Almanac, will receive the Yankee Quill award posthumously for his historic contribution to specialty weather and agriculture journalism. Thomas, who also served as editor for 54 years until his death in 1846, created a specialty New England publication that stands today as the oldest continuously published periodical in the United States. Distributed annually, it bloomed from a handful of subscribers in its first year to more than 3 million today.”
I am honored to be recognized among this cohort of exceptional journalists. Please support our cause.
Special report: Yankee Quill winners announced; How you can support true, local journalism
Congratulations, Lincoln! I hope you, Steve Curwood, and Mal Levy take some satisfaction from knowing that somewhere -- out there -- a young man or woman is looking to you three as inspirations to light and guide their own way forward in journalism.
Love it. How to take Local Gems and facet them into National Jewels. A healthy skeptic with moral fortitude. The truth be known.