CONGRATULATIONS TO
BRENDA O’NEALE & MALIK VINCENT
Winners Of Vann Awards On Sept 4th
Representing Soul Pitt Quarterly!!

** See Complete List of Winners Below **

Pittsburgh media group announces winners
for 2014 Vann awards

PITTSBURGH (Sept. 4, 2014) — The Pittsburgh Black Media Federation is proud to announce the winners of its 26th annual Robert L. Vann Media Awards. The winners were named at a reception Sept. 4.

With the Award of Excellence, the Vann program honors excellence in print, broadcast, photography and online journalism coverage of the African-American community of Western Pennsylvania.

“These journalists have produced insightful and contextual coverage of African and black American issues in Western Pennsylvania and in Pittsburgh, distinguishing themselves as culturally sensitive as well as journalistically competent,” PBMF President Tory N. Parrish said.

Award winners were named during PBMF’s annual awards reception, which took place from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 4, at the University of Pittsburgh’s O’Hara Student Center, 4024 O’Hara St., Oakland.

The Award of Excellence finalists were selected in 19 categories. Entries were published or broadcast between Jan. 1, 2013, and Dec. 31, 2013.

The entries were judged by professional journalists in Atlanta; Gaithersburg, Md.; Toledo, Ohio; and Washington, D.C.

Also at the reception, PBMF presented its Legacy in Journalism and Communicator of the Year awards, whose winners were selected by the PBMF membership.

Allen King was given Legacy in Journalism honors for his distinguished and varied news career, which began in 1957 at WAMO radio. Over the course of 41 years, he was a producer, writer and reporter with five Pittsburgh radio stations and two local television stations.

PBMF’s Communicator of the Year Award acknowledges the winners’ messages of empowerment, strength and hope that they disseminate through their community service work.

The 2014 Communicator of the Year Award was presented to Luther J. Sewell Jr. and Roxanne N. Sewell of the LJS Group. An enterprise more than 50 years old, LJS publishes Talk Magazine and hosts community events and initiatives, including the Pennsylvania African American Network Convention and the African-American/Latino Roundtable.

Robert. L. Vann Media Awards Subcommittee Chair Ervin Dyer said he was overwhelmed at the show of support and number of attendees at the decades-old reception.

“These journalists have challenged themselves by expanding their reporting to often-ignored topics, issues and populations,” Dyer said. “I am proud to count myself among a generation of forward-thinking media professionals who wish to fully portray the lives of Western Pennsylvanians.”

Proceeds from the reception help fund college scholarships for graduates of PBMF’s Frank Bolden Urban Journalism Workshop for high school students.

In 1988, PBMF launched its journalism awards competition. It is named for the late Robert L. Vann, legendary publisher of the Pittsburgh Courier, to honor his personal commitment to journalism and to creating a voice for the black community.

Founded in 1973, PBMF is a nonprofit organization that advocates for diversity in newsrooms, hosts programs that recognize excellent media coverage of minority communities and trains young people to enter the media industry.

For more information about the Vann awards, contact Deborah Todd at 412-263-1652 or dtodd@post-gazette.com, or Dyer at 412-624-4796 or edyer@pitt.edu.