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Carol Sutton’s birthday
Born on this day in 1933: Carol Sutton. She was the first woman to be named managing editor of a metro daily newspaper – at the Louisville Courier-Journal in 1974. It was major news at the time and she was featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1975. She went on to champion minority recruitment and journalism ethics at her newspaper. She was the women’s page editor prior to her promotion to M.E. She worked to transform the women’s page into a progressive session and included early coverage of the women’s liberation movement. Carol was a true trailblazer. She died in 1985. My article about her is in the…
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Vivian Castleberry honored
I was pleased to learn that Dallas women’s page editor and peace activist Vivian Castleberry was honored by Women’s Enews. I used to write for the group a few years ago. She was named one of seven women who are reinventing the future. Here is more about it. She is quite deserving of this honor. I am in the process of writing a book about her.
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Working mothers & women’s pages
This week, I received a copy of the 1966 book by Lois Benjamin, So You Want to Be Working Mother. The book took on a topic that controversial at the time and the book was widely reviewed. The book begins: “Like the weather, working mothers are now a fact of life that almost anyone can talk about, and often does. Also like the weather, we are something nobody knows quite what to do about, beyond recognizing, a little uncomfortably, that we seem to be here to stay.” An article about the book led to a debate about the issue in the “Column with a Heart” which ran in the women’s…
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Criticism of women’s pages
This week, Ms magazine’s blog included the post: The “Women’s Pages” Go Online: Good or Bad News?” In it, Ruth Rosen (a great author) dismisses the women’s pages. She wrote: “Forty years ago, feminists demanded that special “women’s pages,” which featured fashion, society and cooking, be banished from newspapers. Instead, they insisted, newspapers should mainstream serious stories about the lives of women throughout their regular news. Forty years later, the new media have re-segregated women’s sections. The good news is that they are no longer about society, cooking and fashion. Most are tough, smart, incisive, analytic and focus on events, trends or stories that the mainstream online news still ignores.…
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Interview about Jeanne Voltz
This morning I interviewed the Charlotte Observer food editor Kathleen Purvis about Jeanne Voltz. Kathleen had profiled legendary food editor Jeanne and met her several times. Here is quote I liked from a column Kathleen wrote after Jeanne died:“And then there was Voltz’s determination that we get our food facts right. When I called her colleagues for quotes for her obituary, they all brought it up, with laughter and fondness. Voltz wasn’t valued for her sweetness. Her flavor was pepper and vinegar.” Kathleen was very helpful – especially about providing perspective on the importance of food journalism. I am finishing up my article about Jeanne who got her start in…
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Koky Dishon article is published
I am so excited that my article about Colleen “Koky” Dishon has been published in Timeline, the Ohio Magazine of History. She was the first woman on the masthead of the Chicago Tribune. She created more than 15 new sections – and they were quickly copied across the country. Said Ann Marie Lipinski: “Whether you have ever worked for Koky, or ever heard her name, you are a beneficiary of her genius.”
A website devoted to the history of newspaper women's pages
