The Dart Society seeks nominations for The 2009 Mimi Award
2008 Mimi Award winner Lois Norder of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, center, stands with nominators Jennifer Forsyth, Miles Moffeit, Mark Horvit, and Yamil Berard.
UPDATE: Layoffs and buyouts prompt guidelines change
In mid-April the society's board voted to broaden the guidelines for nominations of The 2009 Mimi Award to include editors who've left their newsrooms in the past year due to layoffs, buyouts and early retirement.
Dart Society Vice-President Miles Moffeit of The Denver Post recommended the guidelines change after watching great editors across the U.S. forced off their desks and onto unemployment lines. More than 8,000 jobs have been lost in 2009 alone, according to the Paper Cuts Web site, which tracks the losses.
The Dart Society is seeking nominations for The Mimi Award, an annual prize that recognizes exceptional work by an editor.
The Dart Society gives the award to honor the memory of Providence Journal editor Mimi Burkhardt, who died unexpectedly in December 2004. Burkhardt inspired those around her to live up to high ideals and to produce solid journalism with heart. The award recognizes editors who support and encourage excellence, like Mimi did, and who have a keen understanding of how to navigate the emotional landscape of assignments involving tragedy and trauma
The deadline for nominations is June 1. The 2009 Mimi Award will be presented on Aug. 28 at the Dart Society Reunion and Symposium, which is being held in conjunction with the annual Society of Professional Journalists convention in Indianapolis. The Mimi Award includes a $1,000 prize.
The Mimi In 2008 was awarded to Lois Norder, managing editor of investigations at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. In 2007, David Clark Scott, international news editor at The Christian Science Monitor, was the inaugural winner. The 2009 winner will be the third recipient of The Mimi Award.
Norder was chosen for The Mimi Award because of the compassion she shows for those abused by the system as she aggressively pursues watchdog stories. She has a reputation as an editor who brings that same compassion to her staff — pushing them to do their very best, but also to maintain a healthy life outside of work.
You can find information, including the instructions on how to nominate an editor for The 2009 Mimi Award, online.
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Deirdre Stoelzle Graves
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Dart Society Director Deirdre Stoelzle Graves is a writer and painter who lives on an isolated cattle ranch in Wyoming. As a crime reporter and city editor at the Casper Star-Tribune, her coverage focused on social justice and interpersonal conflict. She traveled twice to Rwanda on Dart-related missions.
About The Dart Society
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The Dart Society is a nonprofit organization of journalists who advance the compassionate and ethical coverage of trauma, conflict and social injustice. Members of the society are Dart Center Ochberg Fellows and winners of the Dart and Mimi awards.