American Press Institute Announces Four Lifetime Service Award Winners

RESTON, Va., Sept. 27 -- The American Press Institute today announced the recipients of its Lifetime Achievements Award. Given to those who have made life-long contributions to the newspaper industry, it recognizes individuals with outstanding career achievements who have significantly supported and promoted the professional advancement and leadership training of newspaper professionals. Over its 60-year history, API has bestowed only eight of these awards prior to the 2006 ceremony and the four new recipients now join this select group of industry giants.

The honorees accepted their awards at a ceremony dedicated to the 60th anniversary of API's founding and attended by many of the newspaper industry's leadership.

"Between them, these four individuals have more than 120 years of service to the newspaper industry and their dedication to their profession is unparalleled," said Andrew B. Davis. "API is honored to have had a long and productive relationship with each of these leaders and the dedication that they have shown to our profession has ensured that successive generations of newspaper professionals have been able to access the training and inspiration that will enable them to follow in these worthy leaders footsteps."

George B. Irish, President, Hearst Newspapers, Senior Vice President, The Hearst Corporation: Irish, the outgoing chairman of API's board of directors, has a long and distinguished newspaper career that spans more than four decades. His affiliation with the Institute stretches back 33 years when he attended his first API seminar. Joining API's board of directors in 1997, Irish became the board's chair and a member of the executive committee in 1999. As well as offering his services to numerous API seminars and events, Irish presided over a unique period of change at API as entered into its sixth decade of providing leadership to the newspaper industry.

Irish has worked for The Hearst Corporation since 1980, serving as publisher of the Midland (Mich.) Daily News, president and publisher of the Midland (Texas) Reporter-Telegram, publisher of the Beaumont (Texas) Enterprise, group publisher of the Hearst Texas division and publisher of the San Antonio (Texas) Light. He assumed his current title in 1998.

A graduate of Millikin University in Decatur, Ill., He serves on The Hearst Corporation board of directors, the Newspaper Association of America's board Committee on Industry Development and its Postal Committee, the board of directors of the Foundation for American Communications and The Associated Press board. He is chair of the board of trustees of Millikin University.

Frank Quine, Assistant Dean, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park: Quine's nearly four-decade relationship with API began in 1967 when he attended a Sports Editors Seminar when the Institute was housed at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. He joined API's executive staff two years later. In 1977, three years after the Institute moved to Reston, Quine was named managing director and became API's director in 1979.

During his tenure as director, Quine diversified and expanded the range of seminars and locations for the seminars program. One of his major contribution to API's programming was overseeing the development of the Executive Development Program, a computerized newspaper management simulation for both large and small newspapers -- the only one of its kind in the industry.

In 1988, Quine joined the University of Maryland's College of Journalism where he has served as chief development officer of the college. He is vice president of the American Journalism Review, the national magazine on press and media performance published by the Merrill College.

Earlier in his career, Quine spent 10 years as a reporter and editor on Florida newspapers. He was a sports writer for the Jacksonville Journal (1959-62), and sports editor and news editor at the St. Petersburg Evening Independent (1962-69). He is a former member of the board of directors of the Washington Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and serves on the Journalism Education Committee of the National Newspaper Association and the board of the Washington Sigma Delta Chi Foundation.

Alan Weiss, Ph.D, President, Summit Consulting Group, East Greenwich, Rhode Island: Weiss, a consultant, speaker and author, began his relationship with API nearly 26 years ago when he led a management session for a Classified Advertising Executives seminar. Since then, he has been a discussion leader 56 times in a wide range of editorial, cross-departmental and business-side programs.

Weiss has been a visiting faculty member at Case Western Reserve University, St. John's, the University of Illinois, the Institute of Management Studies, and the University of Georgia Graduate School of Business. He currently holds an appointment as adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Business at the University of Rhode Island, where he teaches courses on advanced management and consulting skills.

Dr. Weiss holds a Ph.D. in psychology and has published more than 400 articles and written 21 books, including the best-seller, Million Dollar Consulting His newest books are Good Enough Isn't Enough and The Unofficial Guide to Power Management. His books have been on the curricula at Villanova, Temple University, and the Wharton School of Business, and have been translated into German, Italian, and Chinese. Weiss' consulting firm, Summit Consulting Group, Inc., has attracted clients such as Merck, Hewlett-Packard, GE, Mercedes-Benz, State Street Corporation, Times Mirror Group, Pillsbury, The New York Times, Avon, and more than 300 other leading organizations.

William L. Winter, Ph.D, Vice President for Programs, Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, Las Vegas: Winter became executive director of API in 1987 and served the Institute for 16 years, until 2003. During his tenure, API stepped up its efforts to gain greater visibility, to expand its seminar offerings and develop a diverse faculty. He also lead API's highly successful 50th Anniversary Endowment Campaign and forged a partnership with The Freedom Forum that enables many attendees to experience discussions on the First Amendment with Freedom Forum executives. During his time with API, Winter served on the boards of the Paris-based World Editors Forum and of API. He was awarded the L.J. Hortin Distinguished Alumnus Award by the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, and the Legacy Flame Award by Tennessee State University.

A lifelong journalist, Winter began his career in 1966 as a journalism instructor at San Antonio College, then Central Michigan University. He then served as a reporter for The Associated Press in Helena, Montana, Louisville, Kentucky, and Columbus, Ohio, and was a correspondent in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in Jackson, Mississippi, then Kentucky bureau chief, stationed in Louisville. He also held positions as sports editor and county government reporter at the Bozeman (MT) Chronicle; executive sports editor of The Courier Journal & Louisville Times; assistant managing editor at the Akron Beacon Journal, and executive editor of The Star-News in Pasadena, California.

Winter operated a fundraising and organizational-development consulting firm in Naples, Florida, from late 2003 through 2005, and then joined the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation's Las Vegas-based staff as special assistant to the president in January 2006.

About the American Press Institute
The American Press Institute (www.americanpressinstitute.org) is an independent educational center for providing skills-training and leadership development in the news industry, offering seminars and onsite programs for newspaper professionals.

Media Contact:
Gayle Armstrong
American Press Institute
11690 Sunrise Valley Drive
Reston, VA 20191-1498
703.715.3322
garmstrong@americanpressinstitute.org