Chronicle to receive Service to Journalism Award from Press Club of Western PA
“The newspaper is to be commended on ... its service to its readership and community, which stretches far beyond our city’s borders and southwestern Pennsylvania.”
The Press Club of Western Pennsylvania will present one of its two 2023 Service to Journalism awards to the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle at an awards dinner on May 30. The other service award is going to Monsignor Thomas J. McSweeney, former director of the Diocese of Erie Communications Office and former executive editor of Faith magazine.
Last year marked the 60th anniversary of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, western Pennsylvania’s premier Jewish publication.
“The newspaper is to be commended on reaching this milestone and its service to its readership and community, which stretches far beyond our city’s borders and southwestern Pennsylvania,” a statement from the press club read.
“The history of the newspaper is deep and rich, with predecessor publications ‘The Jewish Criterion,’ founded in 1895, and the ‘American Jewish Outlook,’ founded in 1934, laying the foundation for its current award-winning work,” the statement continued. “The news, feature and opinion articles and multimedia work the staff has crafted has strengthened not only the Jewish community but also connected its readers, providing them with important information that enriches their lives.”
Helen Fallon is the president of the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania, a professor emeritus of journalism at Point Park University and a journalist with the Pittsburgh Union Progress, the publication of the striking workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
She said an executive committee of Press Club journalists helped select this year’s Service to Journalism Award winners. The award honors an individual or group that has made outstanding contributions to journalism in Western Pennsylvania.
“I’ve always been impressed that these community-based newspapers have endured,” Fallon said. “The Jewish Chronicle has a rich history of serving its community and beyond.”
“We just make sure excellence in journalism is recognized and celebrated,” she added.
Previous Service to Journalism Award recipients include Pittsburgh print and broadcast reporters, journalism educators, the WQED Multimedia and Frank Bolden Urban Journalism Workshop, the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, Trib Total Media publisher Jennifer Bertetto, and others.
The honorees will be celebrated during the Golden Quills dinner on Tuesday, May 30, at the Rivers Casino.
Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle publisher Jim Busis said his organization is “thrilled and honored to be selected for this year’s Service to Journalism Award.”
“It’s a welcome recognition of not only the value that we provide every day to the Pittsburgh Jewish community but also of the role that we play in the broader Pittsburgh news media and the entire Pittsburgh community,” Busis said. “Of course, this acknowledgment reflects not only the hard work and skills of the current staff and board but also all the staff and board members who have contributed so much to the Chronicle over the last 60 years.”
The Press Club of Western Pennsylvania is a nonprofit membership organization of journalists and other communications professionals from a 29-county area of western Pennsylvania, plus areas of Ohio and West Virginia. PJC
Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.
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