Record editor wins international award
At a formal banquet Saturday at South Dakota State University, Record editor Eric Meyer received the prestigious 47th Eugene Cervi Award from the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors.
Meyer is the first son of a previous recipient to receive the award and the third journalist from Kansas to receive it.
His father, Bill Meyer, won it in 2002. McDill “Huck” Boyd, the Phillipsburg editor for whom Kansas State University’s National Center for Community Media is named, won it in 1985.
The award, not presented every year, was established in 1976 to honor a Rocky Mountain editor who consistently acted in the conviction that “good journalism begets good government.”
Unlike many awards won after police raided the Record newsroom in August, 2023, the award is presented, according to ISWNE, “not for a single brave accomplishment but for a career of outstanding public service through community journalism and for adhering to the highest standards of the profession with deep reverence for the English language and consistently aggressive reporting at the grassroots level.”
After his death in 1970, Cervi was described by the New York Times as “one of the most outspoken voices in American journalism.” Several ISWNE members still regard him as their “journalism conscience.”
Colorado, Illinois, and Canadian editors have won the award four times. Kansas editors now join Missouri and New Mexico editors in winning the award three times.
Arizona, California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Washington, and Wisconsin editors have won it twice.
Other awards have gone to editors from Arkansas, Australia, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio, New York, and Vermont.
Letters of support for Meyer’s nomination were provided by Emily Bradbury, executive director of the Kansas Press Association; Al Cross, director emeritus of the Institute for Rural Journalism at the University of Kentucky; Gloria Freeland, director emerita of the Huck Boyd Center; Sarah Kessinger, editor and publisher of the Marysville Advocate; Sam C. Mwangi, current director of the Huck Boyd Center; Sherman Smith, editor-in-chief of the Kansas Reflector; and Paul H. Stevens, retired Associated Press bureau chief for Kansas and Missouri.
Bradbury wrote of Meyer’s “unwavering commitment to quality journalism and his dedication to fostering good governance within his community.”
“Like Cervi,” she wrote, “Eric possesses an innate ability to use words to inspire, inform, and provoke thoughtful discourse. Even before the infamous raid on the Marion County Record, Eric was consistently tireless in pursuit of truth and accountability in local government.”
His “fearless approach to investigative journalism,” “unwavering commitment to ethical journalism,” and “dedication to public service make him a true embodiment of the principals that the award seeks to honor.”
Freeland cited Meyer’s “fierce coverage of all aspects of his community, his excellence in reporting, and his strong editorial voice.”
“I don’t know how they do it,” she wrote, “but Eric and his small staff have kept on publishing . . . in spite of intimidation, unanswered questions, and continued resistance from government institutions.”
The Record, Kessinger said, “is stock full of well-written, concise, and balanced reports” with “a lively editorial page” that “brims with razor-sharp observations” and “never shies from weighing in on controversial topics.”
“He has hung on like a bulldog,” she wrote, “and this nation can look to him as a beacon of hope at a time when the U.S. press in general faces an era of authoritarian government threats.”
Smith and Mwangi cited Meyer’s reaction to the 2023 police raid.
“It’s especially important,” Smith wrote, “that Eric Meyer was willing to speak up, loudly and as often as anyone would let him.
“There are newsrooms in Kansas where local authorities could have gotten away with a newsroom raid because the owner is an out-of-state corporation and the only employee in the newsroom is too inexperienced to understand the severity of what happened and too scared to sound the alarms.
“They picked on the wrong small-town newspaper.”
Mwangi added that Meyer’s “eloquent defense of the value of independent community journalism” has “elevated his service to community journalism beyond Marion County to the larger national and international community.”