Gloria Biggs
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Al Neuharth Has Died
Gannett executive and USA Today founder Al Neuharth died on Friday. He is pictured above with women’s page editor Dorothy Jurney. Neuharth was an advocate for women in journalism. He named women’s page editor Gloria Biggs as the first woman to be a Gannett publisher. Several years later, he named women’s page editor Marjorie Paxson to be a Gannett publisher. Neuharth was married to Florida Senator Lori Wilson in the 1970s. Here is a link to an article I wrote about Wilson and her fight to get the E.R.A. passed in her state.
- Dorothy Jurney, Eleni Epstein, Gloria Biggs, Marjorie Paxson, National Women and Media Collection, Roberta Applegate
Happy Archive Month!
October is National Archive Month. I love archives – which we visit as often as we can. Our favorite is the National Women & Media Collection in Missouri. I am writing an article about my discoveries there for the 25th anniversary of the Collection. The NWMC was started by women’s page editor turned publisher Marjorie Paxson. Other women’s page journalists whose papers are at the NWMC include Marie Anderson, Roberta Applegate, Gloria Biggs, Eleni Epstein and Dorothy Jurney. And, most helpful of all are the papers of the Penney-Missouri Awards – the top recognition for women’s pages in the 1960s.
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Henrietta Poynter and the St. Petersburg Times/Poynter Institute
On Thursday, we are traveling to St. Petersburg for a three-day workshop at Poynter. It is named for St. Petersburg Times Publisher Nelson Poynter – although I always think that it should also be named for his second wife, Henrietta, who wrote editorials for the newspaper with her husband. Together, they created Congressional Quarterly. She had an impressive background with a 1922 journalism degree from Columbia University and then an editor for Vogue and Vanity Fair before marrying Nelson. She was the first woman to serve on the American Committee of the International Press Institute. A friend described her as “an earthy highbrow … the most unboring person I ever…
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AEJMC: Commission on the Status of Women paper
Lance and I learned that our paper, “A False Start, a Heavy Burden and Hugs: A Study of the Female “Firsts” in Newspaper Management” has been accept by the Commission on the Status of Women of AEJMC. We looked at the careers of three women: Gloria Biggs as the first female publisher of her non-family owned newspaper in 1973, Carol Sutton as managing editor of a major metropolitan newspaper in 1974 and Janet Chusmir as executive editor of a major metropolitan newspaper in 1987. Their stories are important to understand how progress was made and how it was slowed. It also provides perspectives about the different paths to newspaper management…
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AEJMC: Commission on the Status of Women paper
Lance and I learned that our paper, “A False Start, a Heavy Burden and Hugs: A Study of the Female “Firsts” in Newspaper Management” has been accept by the Commission on the Status of Women of AEJMC. We looked at the careers of three women: Gloria Biggs as the first female publisher of her non-family owned newspaper in 1973, Carol Sutton as managing editor of a major metropolitan newspaper in 1974 and Janet Chusmir as executive editor of a major metropolitan newspaper in 1987. Their stories are important to understand how progress was made and how it was slowed. It also provides perspectives about the different paths to newspaper management…
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Conference proposal about Gloria Biggs
Today I am working on an abstract about Gloria Biggs – Florida women’s page editor turned publisher. It is called: “I Weep When I Read the Lines About Not Being the Feminist”: Gloria Biggs’ Transition From Women’s Page Editor to Publisher I am sending it off to a state history conference that will be held next Spring in Jacksonville, Florida – a new city for us to visit. And, best of all, there is a jazz festival in Jacksonville the same weekend. My research on Gloria comes from her papers in the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri. I also interviewed her niece a few years ago.
