Disney’s Eisner to Chair 7th Annual International Press Freedom Awards Dinner
Plans are well underway for CPJ’s 7th Annual International Press Freedom Awards Dinner, slated for Thursday, Oct. 23, 1997. Michael D. Eisner, chairman and chief executive officer of the Walt Disney Company, is chairman of the annual black-tie event, which for the second consecutive year will be held at 6 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom of The Waldorf-Astoria. The evening provides a unique opportunity for people from many fields, including the media, entertainment, and financial worlds, to gather and benefit CPJ. Save the date. More information about how to participate in the main media-industry event of the year will follow during the course of the late spring and summer.
Bloomberg Book to Benefit CPJ
CPJ is grateful to Michael Bloomberg for his decision to contribute royalties from the sales of his new book, Bloomberg By Bloomberg, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., to us. Michael Bloomberg, founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P., was chairman of CPJ’s 1996 International Press Freedom Awards Dinner.
In other development news, the Committee to Protect Journalists is proud to recognize The Freedom Forum, which has recently given us the first part of their annual operating support of $100,000. the Freedom Forum, currently CPJ’s second-largest annual supporter, works in partnership with us on a variety of programs.
And we are delighted that the Reuters Foundation has made a first-time grant of $5,000 to CPJ.
Nancy Woodhull of Freedom Forum Dies at 52
Veteran journalist Nancy J. Woodhull, senior vice president for communications at the Freedom Forum, died in April. As a champion of press freedom, she advocated on behalf of women in journalism, striving to increase the media’s focus on women and the issues that affect them. She was a founding chair, with Betty Friedan, of Women, Men and Media, and was vice chair of the International Women’s Media Foundation.
Woodhull, who began her journalistic career as an editor with The News Tribune in Woodbridge, N.J., served as USA Today’s first managing editor for news when Gannett launched the newspaper in 1982, went on to become senior editor, and eventually became president of Gannett News Media and the Gannett News Service. In her most recent capacity at the Freedom Forum, which she first joined as a trustee in 1992.