Lifetime Achievement Award to be presented to Black Enterprise Magazine Founder and Chairman, Earl Graves; Atlanta’s Cynthia Tucker to be honored as journalist of the year

(Washington, July 6) — The National Association of Black Journalists announced today the finalists for the 2006 Salute to Excellence Awards Competition.  The annual awards recognize exemplary coverage of people or issues of African Americans or in the African Diaspora. The competition honors work from print, television, radio, online, and photojournalism.

Winners will be announced at the upcoming NABJ Annual Convention and Career Fair in Indianapolis. The awards gala will be held Saturday, August 19, in the Indiana Convention Center.

“This was an amazing year for our journalism,” said Bryan Monroe, NABJ president. “From Hurricane Katrina to the death of Rosa Parks to the Gulf War, journalists showed how important different perspectives are in telling the stories of America and the world.”

This year, the Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Earl G. Graves, Black Enterprise Magazine founder, chairman, and publisher. In addition to the Lifetime Achievement Award, NABJ will honor Atlanta Journal Constitution editorial columnist Cynthia Tucker with the Journalist of the Year Award.

For the first time since 2003, all the awards will be presented at the annual convention, this year in Indianapolis.

The breakdown of news organizations with the most finalists is as follows:

Online
Newsweek                          2

Radio
National Public Radio           4

Newspaper-Circulation 150,000 and Under
Chicago Sun Times              3
Riverfront Times                   3
Dallas Observer                   2

Newspaper-Circulation Over 150,000
New York Times                 6
Newark Star-Ledger            2
Detroit Free Press                5
Virginian-Pilot                      4
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel  3
Washington Post                  2
Orlando Sentinel                  3

Television-Market 16 and Below
KETC-TV (St. Louis)          2
WKRN-TV (Nashville)        2
WKMG-TV (Orlando)        2

Television-Network and Top 15 Markets
CBS News                          11
CNN                                   5
NBC News                         3

Among the finalists are Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News, Michele Norris of NPR’s All Things Considered and Ed Bradley and Scott Pelley of CBS News 60 Minutes for their excellence in Hurricane Katrina news coverage. The Wall Street Journal and New York Times are also receiving recognition in the International category on social issues involving Africa.

A complete list of the 2006 Salute to Excellence Awards finalists is available on the NABJ website at www.nabj.org .