Los Angeles Press Club Archive of Meetings

Thursday, March 26, 2009

2nd Annual National Entertainment Journalism Awards

2nd Annual National Entertainment Journalism Awards from Rouslan Ovtcharoff on Vimeo.

Press Club Honors Reporters, Critics
Across the U.S. in 2nd Annual NEJ Awards

In a ceremony honoring critic Joe Morgenstern for his career achievements, the Los Angeles Press Club announced the winners of the Second Annual National Entertainment Journalism Awards.

Finalists and honorees came from publications, web sites and broadcasters of all sizes, and from all across the country. Locally, Ella Taylor of the LA Weekly was named best critic in the print category. Shawn Edwards and Russ Simmons of Fox4 News in Kansas City won the criticism category for television; Kenneth Turan of KUSC won for radio; and Tom Tangney of MyNorthwest.com won for online criticism.

Winners in other categories came from Playboy, Bloomberg, KABC, Georgia Public Radio, the Los Angeles Times, Marketplace, and Rolling Stone.

Morgenstern was honored for his lifetime contributions to the field of entertainment journalism. A film critic for the Wall Street Journal and KCRW, he is the co-founder of the National Society of Film Critics and one of only three film critics to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his work. Presenting the awards this year was film and television actor Robert Forster.

See the complete list of this year's winners.

www.lapressclub.org

Monday, March 23, 2009

"The Women in White" screening at Los Angeles Press Club

"The Women In White" screening at Los Angeles Press Club from Rouslan Ovtcharoff on Vimeo.

Narrated by Andy Garcia, the 55 minute documentary, The Women in White, tells the story of courageous Cuban women trying to free their imprisoned men.

Gry Winther, a Norwegian journalist and documentary filmmaker, will discuss the dangers of traveling to Cuba and her undercover shooting of The Women in White.

Andy Garcia will also be on hand to talk about the right to freedom of expression and life in Cuba.

Moderated by Ana Garcia, investigative reporter and anchor woman at KNBC, originally from Cuba.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Understanding The Civil Justice System: Media Education Seminar

Civil Justice Panel at Los Angeles Press Club from Rouslan Ovtcharov on Vimeo.

Media Seminar: Civil Justice System (Part 2) from Rouslan Ovtcharov on Vimeo.

Media Seminar: Civil Justice System from Rouslan Ovtcharov on Vimeo.

Understanding the Civil Justice System

PURPOSE: To educate members of the media about the American civil justice system, utilizing fast-paced presentations in a balanced and informative setting. The seminar will provide working media with background on the civil justice system, the differences between a civil and criminal trial and tips on how to cover a civil trial.

DATE: Saturday, January 31, 2009

TIME: 8:30 a.m. Continental Breakfast and Registration
9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Seminar (including lunch)
LOCATION: Steve Allen Theater (Los Angeles Press Club)
4773 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90027

PRESENTING ENTITIES: Consumer Attorneys of Los Angeles (CAALA) and the
Los Angeles Press Club

ADMISSION: There will be no charge for participation.

FORMAT: The morning session features brief presentations by a panel of prominent legal professionals (law professor, plaintiff and defense attorneys and a judge) providing an overview of the civil justice system and civil trials. The afternoon session features a hands-on panel discussion about how to cover civil trials and civil justice cases, featuring media members who have covered civil trials along with the Los Angeles Superior Court Public Information Officer, plaintiffs’ and defense attorneys and a judge.

PRESENTERS:

MORNING SESSION
Moderator: Jon Beaupre, Radio and TV journalist, Professor of Communication Studies, Cal State University Los Angeles, Member, L.A. Press Club Board of Directors

Judge Hon. Joe Hilberman Los Angeles Superior Court

Plaintiffs’ Attorney Randy McMurray, Managing Partner, The Cochran Firm President, Consumer Attorneys of Los Angeles

Defense Attorney Phillip Baker, Partner, Baker, Keener & Nahra LLP, Past President, Association of Southern California Defense Counsel

Law Professor Robert Brain, Associate Clinical Professor of Law, Loyola Law School

AFTERNOON SESSION ROUNDTABLE

Moderator: Jon Regardie, Executive Editor at Los Angeles Downtown News

Panelists: Hon. Lee Edmon, Assistant Presiding Judge, Los Angeles Superior Court Patty Kinaga, Principal, Kinaga Porcaro Allan Parachini, Public Information Officer, Los Angeles Superior Court Amy Fisch Solomon, Partner, Girardi & Keese, 2008 President, Consumer Attorneys of Los Angeles Frank Stoltze, reporter, KPCC-FM

TOPICS: Morning Session Panel (9:00-11:30 a.m.)

Understanding the Civil Justice System Welcome and introduction (Beaupre)
Civil Justice System Overview (Prof. Brain)
Trial ABCs (Judge Hilberman)
The Plaintiff’s Side (McMurray)
The Defense Side (Baker)
Q&A

Afternoon Session Panel (12:30-2:00 p.m.)

Covering a Civil Trial
Roundtable Panel Discussion
Q&A
Conclusion and Summary

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Will Lewis, KCRW, President
Beth Barrett, Investigative Reporter, Vice President
Jill Stewart, Deputy Editor at LA Weekly, Treasurer
Jane Engle, L.A. Times, Secretary
Diana Ljungaeus, LA Press Club, Executive Director
Theresa Adams, LA Press Club, Executive Assistant
Edward Headington, LA Press Club, Publicist
Carolina Garcia, Executive Editor, L.A. Daily News, Director
Anthea Raymond, Public Radio anchor, producer, Director
Jon Regardie, Executive Editor of Los Angeles Downtown News, Director
Rory Johnston, Freelance Journalist, Director
Fred Mamoun, Producer, NBC4, Director
George White, Multimedia Journalism Consultant, Director
Gry Winther, Norwegian TV Reporter & Documentary Maker, Director
Chris Woodyard, Reporter, USA Today, Director
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Theresa Adams: LA Press Club Executive Assistant, Freelance Journalist. A former insurance investigator, Theresa returned to college to study journalism. As a student at Los Angeles City College (LACC) she was editor in chief of both the newspaper and the magazine. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a 1st Place Press Club Award for “Best Student News Story.”

She received a degree in journalism and liberal arts from LACC and is currently enrolled in the UCLA Center for Community Colleges Partnership Scholars Program.

She was the first student in the history of the club to be nominated to the board of directors. She has recently elevated her role as volunteer to that of executive assistant. She also does freelance work for The Los Angeles Wave newspaper.
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Beth Barrett: In recent years she was an investigative reporter for the LA Daily News. In addition to getting to cover many big stories, she has gotten to know and appreciate most of the city’s media institutions as well as many editors and reporters, and more recently as a freelancer, a number of independent writers and bloggers. She believes the Press Club continues to be an important organization connecting journalists in an increasingly fragmented industry. Her interest in joining the board stems from her commitment to journalism as well as to volunteerism on behalf of nonprofits.
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Jane Engle: Assistant Travel Editor, Los Angeles Times. As a journalist with more than 30 years of experience in editing and reporting local, national, foreign and travel news, features and photos, plus daily blogging, she offers a broad-based grasp of the business. As a 17-year member of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Assn., she brings insights into minority communities.

She believes an important mission for the club is to reach out to all SoCal journalists and aspiring journalists to help them network, improve their skills, weather our industry’s current upheaval and find new opportunities, and yes, have fun while doing it!
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Carolina Garcia, Executive Editor, Daily News: Joined the paper in April 2008 overseeing coverage of the San Fernando Valley’s many diverse communities. She was the executive editor of The Monterey County Herald and managing editor of the San Antonio Express-News from 1998-2003. Prior to that position, Carolina worked at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for 16 years starting as a columnist writing about the area’s growing Hispanic community. Under her leadership, The Monterey County Herald won the top award for a newspaper in the ’06 California Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspaper contest in the 25,000 to 75,000-circulation group.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Carolina was 2002 president of the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors. She is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She has served as chair of the Small Newspaper Committee and the Diversity Committees of the American Society of Newspaper Editors as well as a judge for the Pulitzer Prizes in journalism. She was recently recognized by the California Chicano News Media Association for career achievement on issues of diversity.
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Edward Headington is the Founder and Managing Partner of Headington Media Group (HMG), a boutique communications firm that works with a number of local nonprofit and public benefit organizations—including the Pat Brown Institute, the Unruh Institute of Politics and Coro Southern California.
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Rory Johnston: a freelance, reporting for City News Service, NPR, KCRW, BBC Radio, The (London) Times, the Irish Times and others. He was formerly Editor of London Radio Service, an associate editor with Reed Business Press and a series editor for Penguin Books, and had a column on technology in (of all places) Vogue.
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Will Lewis, KCRW: has a unique blend of experience in radio/TV news and public affairs, as well as in print media. Recently, he was part of the KCRW management team that helped shape the station as a powerful voice in news, cultural affairs and music, as well as an online leader. He will continue to use his years in building membership in public radio to expanding membership in the Press Club.

In his first term on the board, he helped secure candidates and presenters for the club’s major awards, represented the board at a number of events, helped plan for a new website and successfully urged the board to speak out on freedom of the press issues. He believes Southern California needs a strong Press Club, especially in this critical period where the media landscape is rapidly changing.
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Diana Ljungaeus, is also a foreign correspondent for Swedish media. She runs the day to day business of the press club, produces most club events and has produced or co-produced the annual awards gala for six years running. She has been involved with the club since 1999.

Ljungaeus is an award-winning journalist with a broad background as a reporter, editor, researcher and producer. She has lived and worked in Sweden, England and the USA.

“I want to continue to improve and grow the stature of the press club and make it the most vibrant, exciting organization for journalists in California.”
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Fred Mamoun, Investigative News Journalist at KNBC News for the last seven years and as a television news journalist since 1993 covering many stories exposing corruption, fraud and abuse of power. His stories have led to changes in Federal and State laws and to multimillion-dollar class action lawsuits. Like many of you, he believes in the power of journalism and consider it his responsibility to pave the way for future journalists. That is why he has spent the last two years on the board of the Press Club while teaching journalism part-time at UCLA Extension. “There is a fundamental change happening in every newsroom in America. News organizations are struggling and many newsrooms have cut their staffs in half.” In the “new world of journalism” with the “convergence of media,” it is the role of the Press Club to bring journalists together to prepare for the future.
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Anthea Raymond: She has been part of the Southern California media landscape for a long time. You can hear her now on KCRW radio, LA’s NPR affiliate. You can also learn from Anthea in her Broadcast Journalism class at Santa Monica College. And you can read and comment on her pieces for HuffingtonPost.com.

Anthea has held many senior positions in radio. She was the first Senior Editor at KPCC Radio Pasadena. She was also Executive/Line Producer of “Bloomberg Politically Speaking,” and Show Editor of NPR’s ground-breaking program on race, “News and Notes.” Anthea’s career hardware includes an Emmy nomination, multiple Golden Mike wins, and an LA Press Club Award for Best Multimedia Package.

Anthea served as President of the Los Angeles Press Club from 2006-2007, and has co-produced four Southern California Journalism Awards. She is now on the Board of the Echo Park Recreation Center.
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Jon Regardie, has been working as a journalist in Los Angeles since 1993, and has served as executive editor of Los Angeles Downtown News for the past four years, overseeing the day-to-day operations of the editorial department of the newspaper that serves the heart of the city. A current member of the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Press Club, he also is the editor of The 8-Ball, the Club’s recently revived newsletter. He has won four California Newspaper Publishers Association awards, including two first place prizes in the Columns, Commentary and Criticism category, and was the recipient of an L.A. Press Club first place award for business reporting. He has contributed to numerous local and national publications including Entertainment Weekly, Los Angeles Magazine, Blender, Spin, Budget Living and Maxim.
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Jill Stewart is the deputy editor of the Los Angeles Weekly, the largest alternative weekly newspaper in the Western U.S. Before making the switch to editing, she was a political columnist who regularly appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Orange County Register and Los Angeles Daily News. Previous to that, she was a columnist for the now-defunct Buzz magazine and New Times L.A., and for seven years worked as a metro reporter for the Los Angeles Times covering urban affairs, government, poverty and politics. Her work in recent years has been published by L.A. Weekly, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Wired. As a board member of Los Angeles Press Club she has been instrumental in reviving the club and has produced and moderated several of the most well-attended workshops and panel discussions.
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George White, has promoted and organized engagement between media coalitions and the public during his 11 years at the Los Angeles Times and – more recently – over the past 10 years as an independent media consultant and editor at the UCLA Center for Communications and Community.

He wants to help create strategic relationships with other journalism associations, promote more engagement with the public and help generate more diversity within the press club. The benefits are clear: By building stronger bonds with other journalism associations, journalists can better promote good journalism and help ensure transparency in government. By organizing more engagement with the public, journalists can get more community feedback on news coverage and develop new sources of information. By promoting more diversity within the press club, journalists can make our organization stronger and more representative of the journalism community.
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Gry Winther:
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Chris Woodyard, Business Reporter, USA Today. After two years as Press Club president, The Press Club is stronger and offers better events. It’s tried to bring in big names — from a visit by NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd to a night with longtime Times’ pop music critic Robert Hilburn. The Press Club has worked to reposition itself toward the new realities in journalism and reach out to friends who have lost their jobs. It’s also created the National Entertainment Journalism Awards, entering its third year. Through it all, members have kept their day jobs—Chris as a reporter for USA Today’s Money section and editor of the Drive On blog. He has been a Los Angeles journalist for over two decades.