A Magazine by the Society of Professional Journalists


People and Places


September 5th, 2023 • Quill Archives, People and Places
2023 Fellow Feature: Richard Drew

Even if you don’t know Richard Drew’s name, you’ve no doubt seen his work. As an Associated Press photographer for 53 years, his lens has caught everything from foreign wars, international Olympics Games, U.S. political races and European royalty, to natural disasters, neighborhood fires, police chases and small-town heroes. 


November 4th, 2021 • Featured, Quill Archives, People and Places
2021 Fellow Feature: Clarence Page

Now a syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune, journalist Clarence Page has covered the news for over 50 years, beginning his career in his high school newsroom and working for local Ohio publications including the Middletown Journal. Landing at the Tribune, the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist’s coverage is now a staple in households across America.


October 4th, 2021 • Featured, Quill Archives, Diversity, People and Places
2021 Fellows Feature: Maria Hinojosa

For almost four decades, Maria Hinojosa has shared the stories of marginalized communities through work that celebrates the diversity of the American experience. In 1992, she helped launch the Peabody Award–winning “Latino USA” — one of the earliest public-radio shows devoted to Latino issues — and is its host and executive producer.


September 20th, 2021 • Featured, Quill Archives, People and Places
2021 Fellows Feature: Barbara Walters

Barbara Walters, who would become one of 20th century television journalism’s most well-known faces, almost didn’t enter the field. TV was in its infancy when she graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1951, and her personal background hardly pointed toward a career in the new medium.


September 9th, 2021 • Featured, Quill Archives, People and Places
2021 Fellow Feature: Yamiche Alcindor

Yamiche Alcindor sees her role as seeking the truth on behalf of Americans and telling stories in ways that connect to their lives. Alcindor is White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour and moderator of “Washington Week,” a PBS news analysis show anchored for years by her late mentor, Gwen Ifill.


August 24th, 2021 • Featured, Quill Archives, Diversity, People and Places
The 19th*: Gender, politics and policy are the keywords at a bold start-up writing “for communities rather than about them”

Launching a journalism startup in the midst of a pandemic, protests and a presidential election year with an unstable economy looming overhead, most would probably agree, is a terrible idea. But, for The 19th co-founders Amanda Zamora and Emily Ramshaw, it was the perfect opportunity to put women front and center.


August 23rd, 2021 • Featured, Quill Archives, Diversity, People and Places
Ms. Mayhem: A self-funded news website takes pride in reporting on the intersection of race, class, gender, ability and sexual orientation

Late one night in December 2017, Madison Lauterbach was having trouble falling asleep in the Sydney, Australia, hostel where she was staying over Christmas break. In between journalism school semesters at Metropolitan State University of Denver and getting ready to start her first journalism internship, she had an epiphany.


August 9th, 2021 • Featured, Quill Archives, Diversity, People and Places
BridgeDetroit: Connecting with readers is key for a newcomer filling “information gaps” in the Motor City

BridgeDetroit launched in the middle of 2020 with one purpose: to focus on “lifting up the issues that Detroiters themselves identify as important to their lives.” That meant staffing with a diverse team that reflected the city’s demographics, and hiring an engagement director whose job would be to meet with the community in an effort to create something that truly represented Detroit.


July 29th, 2021 • Featured, Quill Archives, Diversity, People and Places
Wind Newspaper: A free, bilingual weekly with a staff of one makes a difference in San Francisco

Every Tuesday and Wednesday, Portia Li makes the 45-minute trek north from her Millbrae home to San Francisco’s iconic Chinatown neighborhood. On a particularly gorgeous day, with a warmth that is the antithesis of the cool weather the City by the Bay is known for, she purposely parks on hilly Sacramento Street.


June 28th, 2021 • Featured, Quill Archives, People and Places, Ten With...
10 with Lindsay Peoples Wagner

Named editor-in-chief at biweekly The Cut in January, Lindsay Peoples Wagner took the reins of the fashion magazine after serving in the same role at Teen Vogue — where she was the youngest and among the few Black journalists serving as editor-in-chief of a Condé Nast publication.


April 26th, 2021 • Featured, Quill Blog, Quill Archives, Member Profile, People and Places
Celebrating the Stories Behind the Stories

This feature celebrates one of SPJ’s four guiding principals: We are champions for journalists.  For nearly 90 years, the Society of Professional Journalists awards have honored journalists and outlets for their crucial contributions to the profession. The awards are designed to recognize the very best in professional journalism across print, radio, television, newsletters, art/graphics and online.


February 1st, 2021 • Featured, Quill Blog, Quill Archives, People and Places
2020 Fellow Interview: Marty Baron

Note: This story was published in Quill in 2020, prior to Marty Baron’s retirement announcement.   It’s been a bumpy year so far, but Marty Baron makes sure to wear a helmet for the ride. Baron, a regular cyclist, is executive editor of The Washington Post and plans to edit the publication at least through the 2020 election.


December 1st, 2020 • Featured, Quill Archives, People and Places
2020 Fellow Feature: Nikole Hannah-Jones

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones has been reporting on race, education and segregation for decades, picking up the MacArthur Fellowship, Polk and Peabody awards along the way. Now at The New York Times Magazine, where she created The 1619 Project, she said she’s “doing exactly what I’ve worked my entire career to do … The only reason I ever wanted to become a journalist was to write about racial inequalities.”


November 5th, 2020 • Featured, Quill Blog, Quill Archives, People and Places
2020 Fellow Interview: Les Zaitz

No one would have faulted veteran investigative reporter Les Zaitz if, after retiring from The Oregonian in 2016, he’d kicked back at his east Oregon ranch with his wife and watched the world go by. What did a man who’d covered the Mount St.


October 29th, 2020 • Featured, Quill Blog, Quill Archives, People and Places
2020 SPJ Fellow Tribute: Gwen Ifill

Gwen Ifill was a trailblazer and journalism icon with near-universal respect from peers for how she conducted her craft. She began her career in newspapers and moved to television networks, serving as moderator and managing editor of PBS’s “Washington Week” and co-anchor and managing editor of “PBS NewsHour” at the time of her death in 2016.


October 23rd, 2020 • Featured, Quill Blog, Quill Archives, People and Places
2020 Fellow interview: Jorge Ramos

A breaking news event that occurred in the United States 39 years ago started longtime Univision anchor Jorge Ramos on his journalism career path. To help pay for college, the Mexico City native was working at a Mexico radio station. When then-U.S.


December 2nd, 2009 • People and Places
People & Places

Submit items for People & Places to editor Scott Leadingham at sleadingham@spj.org. Committee chairwoman completes NYC Marathon Hilary Fosdal knows many words as a journalist. But perhaps the most engrained in her psyche are “left foot, right foot.” The SPJ member and Digital Media Committee chairwoman completed the New York City Marathon on Nov.


January 30th, 2009 • People and Places
People and Places

[b]Krol is “Woman of the Year” Debra Krol was named “Woman of the Year” in November by the Phoenix Indian Center. Krol has worked as a writer, reporter and editor for 10 years, working with the Fort McDowell Yavapai News, Arizona Capitol Times and Native Peoples Magazine.


February 2nd, 2007 • People and Places
People and Places: February 2007

CHAPTER HOLIDAY PARTY SERVES DOUBLE DUTY In addition to the typical festivities, it was also a celebration of 70 years of SPJ membership for Austin Kiplinger. Kiplinger, the chairman of the Kiplinger Washington Editors and a D.C. Pro member, graciously hosted the party at the Editor’s building.


December 1st, 2006 • People and Places
People and Places: December 2006

Brown Dunlap honored for distinguished service Karen Brown Dunlap, SPJ member and president of The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., was recently awarded the prestigious Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism. She has spent more than 30 years educating journalists and journalism students, teaching seminars in the U.S.


October 18th, 2006 • People and Places
People and Places – October/November

SPJ members inducted into Hall of Fame The Women’s Press Club of New York State Inc. celebrated its 40th anniversary in May by inducting two of its founders — both SPJ members — into the club’s Hall of Honor. They are freelance writers Kate Reinert Fleisher of Horseheads, N.Y.,


June 30th, 2006 • People and Places
People and places: June/July

Peter Hayden Prince, an East Tennessee author, journalist and historian, died April 10 in Knoxville at the age of 70. Prince worked for several newspapers, including the Knoxville News Sentinel, from 1950 to 1985, according to an obituary Prince prepared for himself.


March 30th, 2006 • People and Places
People and places: April

Brewer to lead City Paper Clint Brewer recently was named executive editor of the City Paper in Nashville, Tenn. Brewer was previously the managing editor of the Lebanon Democrat, which had won during his tenure back-to-back Malcolm Law awards as well as public service awards from the Tennessee Press Association.


March 1st, 2006 • People and Places
People and places: March

SPJ members win fellowships The American Press Institute has awarded 10 fellowships to journalism educators and newspaper employees to use in attending API seminars in 2006. Each year, thousands of dollars in fellowships are available to applicants from the United States and Canada to attend API seminars.


February 1st, 2006 • People and Places
People and Places

Philip Robbins, 74, journalist, professor of journalism and a leading authority on the First Amendment and freedom of the press, died of pancreatic cancer Oct. 13 at his home in Elkton, Md. Robbins dedicated his life to the practice of journalism and the principles of a free press and freedom of information.


August 31st, 2005 • People and Places
People and Places

Bradfield book of quotations released William H. Bradfield’s book The Book of Ancient Wisdom: Over 500 Inspiring Quotations From the Greeks and Romans, was released recently by Dover. The book is a collection of quotes he compiled and edited. This book closely follows another one of his collections — On Reading the Bible: Thoughts and Reflections of Over 500 Men and Woman, From St.


August 1st, 2005 • People and Places
People and Places

Fellowships awarded to college educators The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation has announced the 2005 recipients of its Educator in the Newsroom fellowships. Each summer, the program places university-level broadcast educators in radio and television newsrooms for four weeks to refresh their skills and master new technologies.


June 30th, 2005 • People and Places
People and places

SPJ members named Nieman Fellows The 68th class of Nieman Fellows at Harvard University includes two SPJ members: Chris Cobler, editor of the Greeley (Colo.) Tribune, and Mary Curtis, executive features editor and columnist at The Charlotte Observer. Cobler will study how a community newspaper can use the Web to guide new and younger readers back to the paper.


May 21st, 2003 • People and Places
People and Places

Richard J. Meislin, technology editor for The New York Times, has been appointed as editor of news surveys and election analysis. His current position will be turned over to Tom Redburn, an assistant business editor. Meislin, 49, has been with The Times as technology editor since 2001.


April 29th, 2003 • People and Places
People and Places

The congressional Standing Committee of Correspondents elected reporters from USA Today, The Associated Press and Congressional Quarterly to its ranks on Jan. 17. Jim Drinkard of USA Today, Jesse J. Holland of the AP and Mary Agnes Carey of Congressional Quarterly were chosen by colleagues.


March 27th, 2003 • People and Places
People & Places

Niko Price has been named correspondent at large for The Associated Press, a position that was just created. Price is the news editor for The Associated Press in Mexico City. He joined the AP in 1993 in Carson City, Nev., and moved to the Los Angeles bureau six months later.


February 18th, 2003 • People and Places
People & Places

Colorado-based author and SPJ member Cameron M. Burns has won “Best Travel Book” of 2002 in the North American Travel Journalists Association’s annual competition for “The Shoes of Kilimanjaro & Other Oddventure Travel Stories.” Books by writers from across the country and throughout the world were included in the competition.