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George
Curry returns to editor-in-chief position of NNPA News Service
 (April
17, 2012) Award-winning journalist George E. Curry has been named
editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News
Service, a position he held from 2001-2007, it has been announced by
Karl B. Rodney, chairman of the NNPA Foundation, which oversees the wire
service.
"We are pleased that George Curry, a nationally-known journalist, has
agreed to return to the NNPA family," said Rodney, publisher of the New
York Carib News. "Because he has served in the position before and knows
Washington, D.C. so well, all of our newspapers will immediately benefit
from George's experience and contacts. I look forward to working with
him again."
Cloves Campbell, Jr., chairman of the NNPA, said: "George never really
left the NNPA. He moderated many of our panels at our national
conventions and has always been there when we needed him. We are
delighted that he has agreed to direct the News Service."
"I am elated to return to the NNPA News Service," Curry said. "This is a
crucial time for the Black Press and I am happy to be part of
reinvigorating a wire service that serves more than 200 African-American
newspapers."
In addition to supervising the NNPA News Service, Curry will also be
responsible for content posted on BlackPressUSA.com, the publishers'
public Web site.
Curry told Target Market News that he will also continue to serve as
editorial director of Heart & Soul magazine, a fitness, health and
wellness magazine for women of color.
"We have hired Sandra Guzman as our editor-in-chief and she will serve
as the face of voice of Heart & Soul," said Curry, who is part-owner of
the publication. "I will continue to make suggestions and recommend
writers for certain stories, but she will have all of the customary
powers enjoyed by an editor-in-chief."
Curry was named Journalist of the Year in 2003 by the National
Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) for overhauling the NNPA News
Service. The University of Missouri School of Journalism presented him
with its Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism,
an honor it had earlier bestowed on such luminaries as Joseph Pulitzer,
Walter Cronkite, John H. Johnson and Winston Churchill.
Curry is the former editor of Emerge magazine. Under his leadership,
Emerge won more than 40 national journalism awards. He launched a 4-year
campaign that led to President Bill Clinton pardoning Kemba Smith, a
22-year-old woman who was given a mandatory 24-year prison sentence for
her minor role in a drug ring. While serving as editor of Emerge, Curry
was elected president of the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME),
the first African-American to hold the organization's top post.
Prior to running the NNPA News Service, Curry was also a reporter for
Sports Illustrated, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and served as a
Washington correspondent and New York bureau chief for the Chicago
Tribune.
During his first tenure with the News Service, Curry was inside the
Supreme Court to hear oral arguments in the landmark University of
Michigan affirmative action cases and travelled to Doha, Qatar to report
on America's war with Iraq.
He is the author of three books and has appeared on numerous national
television programs, including CBS Evening News, ABC's World News
Tonight, the Today Show, Nightline, 20/20 and Good Morning America. His
work in journalism has taken him to Egypt, France, Italy, Germany,
Malaysia, Thailand, Cuba, Ghana, Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, Mexico,
Canada and Austria.
Curry has selected two journalists to serve as Washington correspondents
for the NNPA News Service.
One of them, Akeya Dickson worked as a reporter for the Chattanooga
Times Free Press and as a metropolitan reporter and a social media
manager for the Washington Post. She interned for Reuters News Service,
Black Entertainment Television (BET) and participated in the New York
Times Summer Institute.
Like Dickson, Freddie Allen is a graduate of Howard University. At
Howard, he was a staff writer, photo editor and general manager of the
District Chronicles. He also served as editor-in-chief of Ledge, a
magazine devoted to healthy lifestyles and HIV/AIDS awareness among
young people of color. He traveled with the Black AIDS Institute to
international conferences on AIDS in Bangkok and Toronto.
"I am elated that I will get an opportunity to help further develop the
careers of Akeya Dickson and Freddie Allen," Curry said. "They are
extremely talented and I look forward to showcasing their work in our
NNPA newspapers and on BlackPressUSA.com."
In addition to Dickson and Allen, Kyle S. Yeldell will continue to serve
as Program Activities Coordinator, a position he has held since last
fall. Yeldell is a graduate of Morehouse College, where he served as
sports editor and editor-in-chief of the Maroon Tiger, the student
newspaper. After college, Yeldell wrote for TransWorldNews and Rowdy
Films, the film company owned by Grammy Award-winning producer Dallas
Austin. He also received a Master's degree in Sports Industry Management
from Georgetown University.
"Kyle, who has expertise and an interest in digital technology, will
also serve as our digital manager," Curry said. "We plan to expand our
digital footprint and have a more active presence in social media. Kyle
has the talent and vision to help us dramatically improve in that area."
Curry added, "I am proud of the team we have assembled. We will all be
working to supply NNPA papers with the first-rate stories and digital
content our readers deserve.
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