Four distinguished Mahoning Valley journalists will be inducted into the Youngstown Press Club Hall of Fame in September.
They are: Dennis B. Mangan, retired Vindicator editorial page editor; Emily Webster Love, former associate metro editor at The Tribune Chronicle; Gerry Ricciutti, senior reporter at WKBN and WYTV; and the late Ann N. Przelomski, who was managing editor of The Vindicator.
The inductions will occur at the press club’s Hall of Fame and Awards Banquet at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 7 at Stambaugh Auditorium, 1000 Fifth Ave., Youngstown.
Dennis B. Mangan – Having joined The Vindicator as a reporter in 1971, Mangan served as assistant state editor, Trumbull editor, assistant city editor, and city editor before becoming editorial page editor. As city editor, he supervised dozens of reporters and several photographers and played a decisive role in planning and overseeing day-to-day local news coverage. During Mangan’s 41-year tenure, The Vindicator crusaded against corrupt politicians and mob influences in the Mahoning Valley. In his 25 years as the paper’s award-winning editorial page editor, he wrote thoroughly researched and sharply worded editorials that expressed the official views of the publisher. A voracious reader, Mangan was always well-prepared for the intense campaign season schedule of editorial board interviews with candidates for local and statewide office, who sought the paper’s highly coveted endorsement. While taking copious notes, he would ask probing questions to determine the candidates’ level of knowledge and qualifications for the offices they sought.
Emily Webster Love – Emily Webster Love began her newspaper career as a proofreader at The Tribune Chronicle, then worked briefly for a Warren advertising agency before joining The Vindicator in 1968 as a Warren Bureau reporter. In 1987, she returned to The Tribune Chronicle as a feature writer, associate metro editor and copy editor. She then became executive editor of The Town Crier weekly newspapers and later was an outside contractor for USA Today’s Life, Money and News desks. After that, she spent more than a decade at the Vic Rubenstein marketing firm. Her long and varied award-winning journalism career continues today as she remotely covers news for a small weekly newspaper in southwestern Virginia’s coal fields. In all of her journalism roles, Love has been a passionate advocate for newspapers being an important and integral member of the communities they cover. She recently published a history book based on the letters and memoirs of an early settler’s family and a book about a historic-house-turned-country inn and is working on two other books.
Gerry Ricciutti – With his unmistakable, authoritative broadcast voice and thorough knowledge of the Mahoning Valley, Gerry Ricciutti has been an icon of local television news here for 35 years. Born in Baltimore, and raised in Sharpsville, he received his bachelor’s degree in political science and speech communications from Penn State University in 1982. Ricciutti effectively cultivates news sources, who give him tips that often result in his being the first journalist to report major local news stories. Riccuitti has covered many important stories throughout his distinguished career, including the 2012 Presidential Election. From March to December 2007, he was managing editor and acting news director at WYTV. The impeccably dressed Ricciutti exudes the image of a professional journalist by consistently wearing a suit and tie, and often, his signature fedora hat.
Ann N. Przelomski – Ann N. Przelomski rose to top leadership positions at The Vindicator at a time when the newsroom was largely a male-dominated world. Having joined the paper in 1942, she was a reporter, rewrite person, assistant city editor, city editor and managing editor. She was the first female assistant city editor, city editor and managing editor of The Vindicator. Przelomski’s father, Ernest “Nemo” Nemenyi, was the long-time industrial editor of The Vindicator. Przelomski was a demanding taskmaster, who insisted on factual accuracy, objectivity, and fairness, and correct spelling, grammar and word use. She had an encyclopedic knowledge of the Mahoning Valley and its institutions and leaders. Przelomski retired in 1988 and died at the age of 82 in 2001.
Medal of Merit
Also at the banquet, the press club will present its medal of merit to Mary Beth Earnheardt, a former club executive director, for her work in re-establishing the press club in 2018 and guiding it in the years that followed. Earnheardt is the chairwoman of Youngstown State University’s communication department and a professor in the Anderson Journalism Program. She teaches communication law, journalism history and content creation and has published articles and book chapters on war reporting, political motives and the First Amendment.
Tickets are required to attend the banquet and may be purchased at youngstownpressclub.com….
The Youngstown Press Club was re-established in 2018 to promote journalism and other communication-related professions in the Mahoning Valley.
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