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NEWS SERVICES |
NEWS
| For immediate use |
April 2, 2003 -- No. 205 |
Photo note: To download photos of the inductees, see end of release.
Editor’s note: Event registrations are due Friday (April 4)
April 13 ceremony to honor achievers in journalism, advertising, broadcasting
By ZACH HOSKINS
UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication
CHAPEL HILL -- Four renowned communication professionals will be inducted into the N.C. Journalism and Advertising Halls of Fame on April 13.
The three journalism honorees are Birdie Speight Debnam (posthumously), who for 28 years was editor and publisher of the Standard Laconic, a weekly newspaper in Snow Hill; John Woestendiek, a reporter for The Baltimore Sun, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1987 while writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer; and Ramon L. Yarborough, former president and publisher of Fayetteville Publishing Co. for 29 years.
The advertising honoree is Jim Mountjoy, executive vice president and creative director of Loeffler Ketchum Mountjoy advertising agency in Charlotte.
The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which created, sponsors and houses the N.C. Halls of Fame, will host the induction ceremony at the Carolina Inn.
During the same ceremony, the N.C. Association of Broadcasters will induct three new members into its Hall of Fame: Jim Babb, president of Babb Communications Inc; Jim Goodmon, president and CEO of Capitol Broadcasting Company; and Charlie Rose, executive editor and host of "Charlie Rose" and a correspondent for "60 Minutes II."
The journalism and advertising halls of fame honor native North Carolinians, or those born elsewhere who have become distinctly identified with the state, who have made outstanding, career-long contributions to their field. Honorees need not be affiliated with any university.
"This is a splendid group of honorees," said Dr. Richard Cole, school dean, who heads selection committees that choose the new hall members. "They are the cream of the crop in their professions, not only in North Carolina, but nationwide."
The induction event will include a reception at 6 p.m. and dinner at 6:45 p.m. Admission is $65; reservations, due Friday (April 4), may be made by calling (919) 962-1204.
Debnam took over as editor and publisher of the Standard Laconic in 1934 when her husband, Joseph, who founded the paper in 1906, died. She was 55, a busy mother of six and had relatively little knowledge of the newspaper business. But with help from her family, she persevered.
In 1939, Debnam began handling all of the duties of publishing the paper, such as gathering news, editing copy and selling advertising and subscriptions. She sold the paper in 1962, when she was 83, but continued writing a column and selling subscriptions until 1968. She died in 1977 at age 97.
Woestendiek of Baltimore, Md., was born in Winston-Salem and earned his journalism degree in the UNC school. He has worked for newspapers including the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson and the Herald-Leader in Lexington, Ky.
At the Philadelphia Inquirer, he won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for his coverage of the U.S. prison system, including a series about a man wrongly convicted of murder. He was a national correspondent and columnist at the Inquirer and later worked as enterprise editor at The Charlotte Observer before taking his current job at The Baltimore Sun.
Yarborough, a Fayetteville native and Carolina graduate, joined Fayetteville Publishing Co. in 1965 and worked there for 35 years. He was named president of the company and publisher of The Fayetteville Observer in 1971, and he held the positions for 29 years. He was publisher of the Observer for longer than anyone else in the 20th century.
Yarborough spearheaded the launch of a new morning newspaper, the Fayetteville Times, in 1973; the move of the company headquarters to a modern, more spacious building in 1978; the merger of the morning and evening papers in 1990; and a $30 million building expansion, including new state-of-the-art offset presses, in 1999. He retired in 2000 at age 67 and became chairman of the company’s board.
Mountjoy, of Charlotte, has helped produce award-winning advertising campaigns for North Carolina Travel and Tourism, Verbatim Corporation, Outward Bound, Mannington floors, VELUX skylights and many others.
He has received numerous national and international honors from the One Show, The New York Art Directors, International Film Festival, Communication Arts, Graphis and others. Adweek magazine has named him the Southeast’s top creative director, and he has been a finalist three times for the Stephen Kelly Award for the best magazine ad campaign in America.
With this year’s honorees, the Journalism Hall of Fame, which began in 1981, will comprise 102 members. The Advertising Hall of Fame, founded in 1988, will have 15 members.
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Contact: Zach Hoskins, assistant dean for communication, (919) 966-3323, zhoskins@email.unc.edu
