Three broadcast journalists — John London, Jon Esther and Jack Helsel — and magazine writer and editor Kathy Doane will be inducted in the Greater Cincinnati Journalism Hall of Fame June 25.
The Greater Cincinnati professional chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) will induct them during the annual Excellence In Journalism Awards ceremony honoring outstanding work in 2025 by professional, college and high school journalists.
The honorees are:
- JOHN LONDON: The Middletown native spent a decade in radio news before he was recruited by WLWT-TV’s Jerry Springer from the WUBE-AM news team after they each covered the 1983 Air Canada fire at Greater Cincinnati International Airport. London, who retired earlier this year, was praised for his “encyclopedic knowledge of the people and events in Cincinnati” when inducted into the WLWT-TV Hall of Fame in 2024.
- KATHY DOANE: The University of Cincinnati graduate worked 27 years at the Cincinnati Enquirer, mostly as a writer and editor on the Sunday magazine, then spent 10 years at Cincinnati Magazine as a senior editor covering the arts. Doane, who also taught magazine and newspaper feature writing and editing at UC, was inducted into the UC Journalism Hall of Fame in 2014.
- JON ESTHER and JACK HELSEL: The original anchors of WCPO-TV’s 7 O’Clock Report, the city’s first 7 p.m. newscast on July 2, 1979, will be inducted posthumously. Called “Channel 9’s news magazine” in the program’s opening, the “new-to-the market newscast featured an in-depth look at the top stories of the day,” according to the SPJ announcement. Esther, an Indiana native who died in 2010 at age 72, worked for TV stations in Evansville, Des Moines and Louisville before coming to Cincinnati. Helsel, a former TV reporter and newspaper columnist, left Channel 9 after the newscast was canceled in December 1982.
The Cincinnati SPJ also has established a new award named after Emil Dansker, a former Enquirer reporter who co-founded the chapter in 1967. Dansker, who started his career as a Marine Corps combat correspondent, taught journalism at Bowling Green State University and Central State University.
The Emil Dansker Award for Outstanding Achievement in Journalism will be presented to Amanda Boyd Walters, Cincinnati Magazine editorial operations director; Hagit Limor, former WCPO-TV and WXIX-TV reporter, professor of media production/broadcast news at the University of Cincinnati and president of the national SPJ Foundation; and WKRC-TV chief investigative reporter Duane Pohlman, who was inspired to pursue a journalism career by Dansker at Bowling Green State University.
The evening starts with a 6 p.m. reception at Cincinnati Public Radio, 2117 Dana Ave., Evanston. The Hall of Fame induction and Excellence In Journalism awards presentation begins at 7 p.m.
Tickets ($35 per person) are available at Eventbrite.
