Mitch's Media Musings - May 2019
Mitch's Media Musings
April 16 - May 15, 2019
General
Atlanta Press Club Awards of Excellence - Congrats to the 2018 winners!
AJC - Joshua Sharpe
WXIA - Jessica Noll
The Weather Channel Digital and Telemundo - Shawn Efran, John Carlos Frey, Greg Gilderman, Solly Granatstein, Neil Katz and Marisa Venegas
Fox5 - Randy Travis
WSB TV - Josh Wade
GPB - Grant Blankenship
CNN - Tal Kopan and Nick Valencia
AJC - John Spink
The Weather Channel Digital and individual collaborations with Food & Environment Reporting Network and InsideClimate News - Noah Berger, Patty Cox, Yagazie Emezi, Edmund D. Fountain, Bear Gutierrez, Kevin Hayes, Spike Johnson, Frederick Meza and Liz Roll
CNN - Ashley Fantz, Sergio Hernandez and Sonam Vashi
CBS46 - Karyn Greer
Rising Star Award - Evelyn Andrews, Reporter Newspapers
Award of Excellence – News Innovation Award, WSB Radio, Jamie Dupree 2.0
Award of Excellence – Impact Award, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WSB-TV
Click here for all the details: http://tinyurl.com/y27m95ry.
Peabody Awards - WABE wins for "Buried Truths" and WAGA wins for $2 Tests: Bad Arrests."
Murrow Awards
WSB AM/FM, Excellence in Innovation, "Jamie Dupree 2.0"
WXIA, Continuing Coverage, "Trigger: the Whole Story," Excellence in Innovation, Excellence in Sound, "Soul Food Cypher," Excellence in Writing, Matt Pearl, Hard News, "Eaten Alive," Multimedia, News Documentary, "In Construction," News Series, "Mothers Matter," Sports Reporting, "Cindy's Run"
WSB TV, Excellence in Video, "Eyes on the Road",
Atlanta magazine - Josh Sharpe writes this month about why so many pepple are getting cancer in the small Georgia town of Waycross. Read it at http://tinyurl.com/y26d3jpd.
Atlanta Daybook - Atlanta Daybook has closed down. The owners would entertain offers if someone was interested in purchasing the site.
Atlanta INTown - An update from editor Collin Kelly, who is a published editor of poetry. He says his new collection is out now, "Midnight in a Perfect World" (Sibling Rivalry Press). He's been in LA doing readings and in June he'll be reading at the Polari series at London's Southbank Centre with Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. Over Labor Day weekend, look for him reading from the collection and on a poetry panel at the Decatur Book Festival.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The AJC recently won two awards for its coverage of Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed’s administration and its efforts to stonewall the release of public information.
The American Society of News Editors and Associated Press Media Editors on Tuesday gave the AJC, the First Amendment Award, which recognizes “the best example of protecting or advancing freedom of information principles and/or overcoming significant resistance to the application of the First Amendment.”
The AJC also won the 2019 Brechner Freedom of Information Award presented annually by the Joseph L. Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida.
Atlanta Tribune - the magazine is out with its Women of Excellence awards. See the gallery of winners at http://www.atlantatribune.com/2019/04/30/2019-women-of-excellence-reception/.
Dunwoody Crier - Just days after the announcement that the paper was closing, the Appen Media Group announced is would purchase the paper and continue publishing. Details: http://tinyurl.com/y5fg4qb4.
Georgia Public Radio
Bradley George departs for a Tampa radio station
Other departures: Eric Burns, Elena Rivera, Cindy Hill (Savannah Bureau)
Rosemary Scott will be interning at the station, the first intern supported by a UGA Cox Institute Innovation Fellowship.
NBC - Blayne Alexander returns to Atlanta as a national correspondent for NBC and MSNBC. She was previously a reporter and anchor for WXIA.
Patch - Kathleen Sturgeon moves from Appen Media to Patch. She's editing Alpharetta, Milton, Johns Creek, Cumming, Roswell, Canton and Woodstock.
TEGNA - Tegna Inc. (WXIA's parent) has entered an agreement to acquire Atlanta-based 24/7 multicast networks Justice Network and Quest for $77 million in cash. Justice Network, which focuses on true crime, mystery and investigation, launched in 2015. Quest, which focuses on science, history, engineering and adventure-reality series, launched in 2018.
VOX ATL — The nonprofit youth organization publishing at VOXATL.org — is seeking volunteer instructors for their hands-on summer learning program for teens, VOX Media Cafe (VMC).
VMC was co-founded in 2011 by Hank Klibanoff and the team at VOX, and has grown into a six-week camp (three two-week sessions) attracting Atlanta-area teens from diverse backgrounds who explore multimedia techniques for storytelling and publishing while honing journalism and leadership skills.
The sessions are led by a talented group of creatives & media professionals from across Atlanta — that's where you come in! — with support from VOX's adult staff and teen interns. The camp runs from 10am-4pm and is located VOX's teen program office in Peachtree Center, in downtown Atlanta.
The link to sign up to volunteer is bit.ly/vmcvolunteer. Potential (and returning!) volunteers can contact Allison Hood, Allison@voxatl.org, (o) 404-614-0040. VOX's staff also includes longtime Atlanta journalists Rich Eldredge and Rachel Alterman Wallack (VOX founder).
WABE
Jim Burress is back to work!
Reporter Johnny Kauffman will be off at Harvard (in Cambridge, MA) for the next year studying how to do better reporting about voting. This is part of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism. Don't worry! He'll be back. (Editor's Note: Yeah, I totally messed this up somehow in my May Musings newsletter. Sorry, Johnny!)
WAGA/Fox5
Marissa Mitchell is a nominee for the Atlanta Tribune's Women of Excellence awards.
WGCL TV
Sharon Reed will be departing at the end of May. She talked about it all with the AJC's Rodney Ho: http://tinyurl.com/yylqzz2r.
Jennifer Valdez has been promoted to Chief Meteorologist in the wake of Paul Ossmann's departure.
Ella Dorsey moves to covering weather for the 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts.
WSB Radio - Monica Matthews' show moves to Noon - 2 p.m. on Sundays.
WSB TV
Correction: We reported last month that Steve Gehlbach had shifted from morning shift to dayside. This was not correct and we regret the error.
Congrats to Nicole Carr, who's expecting a baby ... and it's a boy!
WXIA TV
Congrats to Liza Lucas on her recent wedding!
Jessica Noll-Korczyk moves to a new position as investigative podcast producer with VAULT Studios/TEGNA. She'll be working on true crime podcasts and long-form, in-depth digital stories. She'll continue working on the "Gone Cold: Unraveling Mysteries" investigations.
News from the PR Dept.
Stephen Brown takes over as President at Cookery Public Relations.
Congrats to PRSA Georgia's first "40 Under 40" honorees! Read more at https://www.prsageorgia.org/page/PRSA40Under40.
Caren West PR will handle PR for the Wildwood Revival in September.
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