The Chair Squeaks: New Directions

Over its 30+ year history, the Headliners Foundation has focused on two primary activities: the awarding of college scholarships in the field of journalism and the recognition of exemplary work by Texas professional journalists through our annual contest, which bestows our prestigious Charles E. Green Awards.  Those are worthy traditions that we hope to continue and grow, well into the future.

Now, with the advent of modern communication technology (i.e., the Internet), we sense an opportunity to extend our mission to promote excellence in Texas journalism far beyond the reach of our efforts in the past.  This re-designed website is the first step in an on-going process that will hopefully lead to a multi-leveled resource for student journalists, professional journalists and people across Texas and the nation who like to see the news being reported well.  Our vision is to provide a gathering point for examples of outstanding reportage–in print, on the air and over the Internet—and to provide forums for discussions of the challenges that face journalism now and in the future.

In attempting this sort of exercise, we realize that we are going to be biting off a challenge of our own as we begin to build and manage such a resource, and we have to admit to being more than a little apprehensive at stepping so far out of our comfort zone.  But, having said that, we are committed to the exercise– and in that mindset, we are going to be trying just about anything that we think may attract some interest and support.  Some of what we try on this site is going to catch on right away, some things will take some time and tweaking and some may seem, well.. sorta cheesy.  We are wide open for solid critiques, commentary and suggestions, and have steeled ourselves for criticisms–positive and negative.

Foundation Vice-Chairman Mark Morrison, who also serves as chair of our Professional Excellence Committee, is one of our contributing bloggers.  His first offering on this site is a sort of guided tour of the features that we have installed as we punch the Go Public button.  Check it out, browse around and send us your comments in the various forms provided for that throughout the site.  Then, sign up to be on our email list so that we can notify you of events of interest that are on the horizon.

Thanks for visiting the site, thanks in advance for your ideas, criticisms and support, and most of all, thanks for your interest in promoting excellence in Texas journalism.

About the Author

Gary Pickle is a prior Chairman of the Headliners Foundation.