Former Nieman curator Bob Giles, NF ’66, will receive a Yankee Quill Award this fall from the Academy of New England Journalists. The annual award recognizes recipients’ contributions to journalistic excellence and broad influence on New England journalism over time. The selection committee was impressed with Giles’ 11 years as director of the Nieman Foundation, including his oversight of programs such as the Nieman Journalism Lab and Nieman Watchdog and his support of narrative journalism.
The Yankee Quill Award is presented annually by the Academy of New England Journalists through the auspices of the New England Society of Newspaper Editors Foundation. It is considered the highest individual honor awarded by fellow journalists in the region. The 2012 awards will be presented as part of the annual conference of the New England Society of Newspaper Editors in November.
Giles is one of five journalists selected for the 2012 Yankee Quill Awards. The other recipients are R. John Mitchell, publisher and owner of the Rutland Herald and The Barre Montpelier Times-Argus of Vermont; Robert Schrepf, former longtime editorial page editor of The Hartford Courant; Robert Turner, former deputy editorial page editor of The Boston Globe, and Jack Williams, veteran television journalist and news anchor at WBZ-TV in Boston.
The Yankee Quill selection committee is made up of previous Yankee Quill winners who are members of the Academy of New England Journalists and representatives of the various New England journalism organizations.
In addition to acknowledging Giles’s work at the Nieman Foundation, the selection committee noted Mitchell’s career contributions to Vermont journalism through advocacy for open government and editorial courage that included his Rutland paper winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for a series of editorials on civil unions. The committee was impressed with Turner’s rich involvement with the Boston community as well as his journalistic achievements that included years of political reporting and editing. Schrepf was cited for his influential editorial writing career at the Courant and his active involvement with the New England Society of Newspaper Editors and Connecticut Foundation for Open Government. Williams was honored for his longtime career as a broadcast reporter and anchor and for his commitment to community through the “Wednesday’s Child” adoption program and other public service programs.