Hello SPJ members,

I have some big news to share with you: our Regional 1 Spring Conference will be held on April 21-22 at Temple University in Philadelphia.

This weekend of training and discussion – dubbed “For the Love of Journalism” will be a joint production of the New Jersey and Keystone SPJ chapters.

I’m very excited about the prospect of co-hosting a regional conference in Philadelphia. It’s a great city with a rich journalism history and a wealth of talent.

So watch for more details in the weeks ahead and please save the date.

When it rains, we work

The SPJ NJ Board had a very productive meeting on Oct. 29. Heavy rain that day forced the board to meet by a telephone conference call, but we took some significant steps:

The Fran Burns Memorial Scholarship

The board voted unanimously to create a $500 annual scholarship to help a deserving SPJ NJ student member attend our annual conference, starting with the Excellence in Journalism conference in Baltimore on Sept. 27-29, 2018.

We decided to name the scholarship after Fran Burns, a former chapter president who passed away earlier this year. Fran was as loyal an SPJ member as ever there was. And she attended our regional conferences faithfully, even in years where her health presented a challenge. So we believe she would have appreciated this memorial.

The recipient of the scholarship will be asked to present a written report on the conference and to detail their experience via social media.

Watch for more details in the weeks ahead on how to apply for the scholarship.

“Oh, the humanity…”

The board also voted unanimously to add the Lakehurst Air Station to our list of historic sites in New Jersey journalism.

The site is where radio journalist Herbert Morrison broadcast his famous account of the Hindenberg crash.

The crash occurred on May 6, 1937, as Morrison was covering the landing for Chicago radio station WSL. His emotional words “oh, the humanity!” is still one of the most famous examples of live radio reporting.

This brings to three the number of sites on our chapter’s list of historic sites in journalism.

The other two are the Union Hotel in Flemington – where the press corps stayed during the Lindbergh kidnap-murder trial – and the T. Thomas Fortune House in Red Bank – home of a pioneering African-American journalist.

A meeting and a tour

Our next board meeting will take place on Sunday, Nov. 19 at 2 p.m. at the Center for Cooperative Media in the new School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University.

Our meeting will be preceded by a tour of the building. Members are welcome to attend, but please RSVP to me at johnensslin@gmail.com 

Steve Lubetkin