Category Archives: Events

The 2020 Touchstone Awards are in the books

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Well, it wasn’t the event we expected to have at the beginning of the year, but we put the 2020 Touchstone Awards into the books nonetheless.

Thank you to the 82 people who attended our virtual event. We appreciate your support so much.

Also, we thank our generous sponsors who supported the event. Because of their support in these unusual times, we were able to increase the scholarships to $1,000. We were happy to give the good news at the event to Kennedy Ellison of the University of Toledo and Shayne Nissen of Bowling Green State University.

2020 Touchstone Winners

Lifetime Achievement Award

Bob Savage, Sr.

Golden Touchstone

Dick Berry

Mary Alice Powell

Contributor Award

Dr. Romules Durant

Wendi Huntley

Print Daily Hard News

Blade Corona Virus Coverage

Print Daily Feature

Precious Fondren, The Blade

Print Daily Sports

Dave Briggs, The Blade

Print Non-Daily Hard News

The Press Newspaper

Print Non-Daily Feature

Jason Webber: Dooley Noted, Toledo City Paper

Photojournalism Videography

Todd Gaertner, WTVG

Photojournalism Print

Kurt Steiss, The Blade

Television Hard News

Brian Duggar, WTOL

Television Feature

Alexandra Kruger BCAN

Television Sports

Claire Dau, BCSN

Radio, Single Report

Brad Creswell WGTE

Radio Show/Series

Brad Creswell WGTE

Podcast

Haley Taylor, WGTE

Social Media

In the Loop WTOL

Digital Media

WTOL Instagram

Student Television

Chase Bachman

Student Print

Riley Runnels

Public Relations Campaign

Thread Marketing Group

Register for Virtual Touchstone Awards, October 21

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The 2020 Touchstone Awards!
A Toledo Press Club Virtual Event

October 21, 7:00 PM (RSVP pressclub@bex.net for login instructions), free for members and non-members alike.

The Touchstone Awards are the highlight of our year at The Press Club of Toledo.  It’s our chance to honor people who make a difference in this community, whether that’s in the field of community service or in journalism and communications.

We can’t meet in person this year, but we have taken our event virtual.  We’ll be honoring our lifetime and community winners and announcing our winners in the journalism and communication fields, as judged by the Press Club of Salt Lake City.

We hope you will join us.  As we did with Pressing Issues, please RSVP to the address above and we’ll get you login instructions.  Feel free to share this with anyone…thanks to our generous sponsors above, the event is free and open to all.

Touchstone Awards Will Be Online

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The Board of Directors for the Press Club of Toledo announced today that the Touchstone Awards will be held online. We’re very disappointed not to be seeing all of you in person as we do every year in October. However, as the event approached, we couldn’t see how we would be comfortable holding an event of this kind in less than 8 weeks.
 
Once we get the online specifics, we will let everyone know.
 
We’ll keep our fingers crossed for 2021.

Beyond George Floyd Pressing Issues a Success!

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Thank you everyone for the wonderful Pressing Issues Virtual Town Hall which was held last night.  It was a huge success.  Over the course of the night, more than 70 people were online and they represented all elements of our community. 

What they heard was insightful and inspiring.  Our panelists provided a rich description of the challenges they face, including–but not limited to–the under-representation of minorities across the newsroom.  The Press Club of Toledo thanks them for their time and their willingness to share their wisdom and experience.

We have received great feedback for people who were in attendance.  This is a good example of what the Press Club exists to do.  Together, we can elevate our profession and our community.

We will be in touch soon with information on our next pressing issues.  In the meantime, if you’d like to help us provide more programming like this, please consider joining the Press Club of Toledo.  The cost for a new membership is only $30.

https://toledopressclub.com/wp-content/uploads/Press-Club-Membership-App.pdf

 

Pressing Issues: Beyond George Floyd, Covering and Responding to Nationwide Civil Unrest

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Beyond George Floyd

Covering and Responding to Nationwide Civil Unrest

A Toledo Press Club Virtual Conference

July 15, 7:00 PM (RSVP pressclub@bex.net for login instructions)

The killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police has sparked the greatest civil unrest in a generation with nationwide protests calling for police reform and social justice. The Press Club of Toledo invites you to a Pressing Issues virtual conference on Wednesday, July 15 at 7 p.m. Hear from a panel of journalists on the front lines of the coverage and communicators charged with formulating responses for their companies and organizations. Together, we’ll explore:

  • The challenges faced by members of the media as they increasingly become targets of law enforcement or protestors while covering demonstrations.
  • The unique challenges facing black journalists and communicators.
  • The choices being made by companies and organizations as they consider how or if they should take a position and respond. Who did it well and who fell short? Does a lack of diversity in corporate communications and public relations hinder those efforts? Are we entering a new age of corporate activism?

Moderator-

Rhonda Sewell, Manager Governmental and External Affairs – Toledo Lucas County Public Library

 

Panelists-

Brandy Jones APR,  Vice President of External Affairs – Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority

Andrew Kinsey- News Anchor- WTOL 11

Precious Fondren- Features Reporter- Toledo Blade

Bri’on Whiteside- Education Reporter- Toledo Blade

Charles “Charlie Mack” Welch Radio Show Host and Program Director, WJUC FM 107.3

Dr. Nicole Kraft to Keynote Touchstone Ceremony

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We are excited to announce that Dr. Nicole Kraft will be the keynote speaker for the 2020 Touchstone Awards, scheduled for October 21.  As a working journalist, an author, and an educator, she is the perfect choice for our event, which recognizes excellence in local journalism and awards scholarships to local journalism students.

Dr. Kraft spent 25 years as an award-winning reporter, editor and magazine journalist, while working also in public relations for professional sports and government communications.

She joined the Ohio State School of Communication in 2010, and her areas of expertise include news, sports and feature writing, social media, sports communication, media law and ethics, and academic use of mobile technology. Her focus in teaching and research has been in utilizing technology in journalism and global education, as well as the intersection of sports and society. Her dissertation developed a grounded theory regarding academic use of mobile technology among student-athletes.

Dr. Kraft is co-director of Ohio State’s Sports & Society Initiative, and as part of the Global One Health Initiative she teaches annually in Ethiopia. In 2015 she was named an Apple Distinguished Educator, and consults with and trains athletic departments around the country in how to better engage student-athletes into academics using mobile technology.

She is also an active journalist, covering sports for the Associated Press and Columbus Dispatch. Her new book, “Always Get the Name of the Dog: A guide to media interviewing,” was released by Routledge in 2019, and in 2020 she authored the digital textbook, “Writing Fabulous Features.”