KPA's David Thompson wins award for public service
The longest-serving executive of any U.S. newspaper association, Kentucky Press Association Executive Director David Thompson, is the 2019 winner of the Al Smith Award for public service through community journalism by a Kentuckian.
Thompson will receive the award Sept. 26, the 36th anniversary of taking the job. No other current member of the Newspaper Association Managers, which serves groups in the U.S. and Canada, has served so long as chief executive of an association.
"It's been a real honor to serve alongside him," said NAM Clerk Layne Bruce, executive director of the Mississippi Press Association and former editor of the Glasgow Daily Times in Kentucky. "David is a dedicated, hard-working advocate for community journalism and freedom of information."
In the last session of the General Assembly, Thompson led successful efforts to defeat bills that would have substantially weakened the Kentucky Open Records Act. In 1992, he coordinated the last major revision of the act, which was passed in 1976.
"David has been a tireless advocate for good journalism in Kentucky," said Tom Eblen, president of the Bluegrass Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. "He has not just supported Kentucky's newspapers. He has worked hard for their readers to make sure Kentucky's open-records and open-meetings laws are protected and enforced in the public's interest."
The SPJ chapter and the University of Kentucky's Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues present the award, which is named for Albert P. Smith Jr., who published newspapers in rural Kentucky and Tennessee, was federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission and the driving force for creation of the institute, which publishes The Rural Blog.
Read more from the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues
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