OPC Board member and Dateline editor Tim Ferguson writes about the OPC Awards Dinner for Forbes.com.
Last night the Overseas Press Club of America bestowed its annual awards for work in print, broadcast and online. Although Forbes was not chosen this year, as it has been a number of times before, the evening was well worth it–full of touching accounts of heroism, suffering and death–both among the subjects our stories and us journalists ourselves. The Japan earthquake-tsunami-reactor calamity was a celebrated topic.
These honors from the OPC have special meaning because they come directly from editorial colleagues, who know what goes into a final product. I’m personally heartened to see entrants into our field from surprising places. The Virginia Quarterly Review, a rising star, has shown particular depth in matters of the old Soviet Union. (It won for Best Use of Online Video, for a look at bereft survivors of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.) The cyber medium is making it possible for other outfits with modest budgets and staff, such as Foreign Policy (another winner, General Excellent Online), to be full participants in the information sector.
Read what Tim Ferguson said to Ted Turner >>