Bailey

Chauncey Bailey, slain editor of the Oakland Post, has been named Journalist of the Year by the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. The NorCal chapter says:

At a time when journalists around the world are under threat for simply doing their jobs, Bailey was a forceful presence in print and on radio and television in the Bay Area for the past 15 years. A tireless advocate for the African-American community, he was assassinated while pursuing a story, and evidence presented thus far shows that he was assassinated because he was pursuing that story. His death is a loss to the Bay Area community he served, to the young journalists he mentored, and to the profession of journalism he so passionately practiced.

SPJ NorCal’s Public Service award went to G.W. Schulz and the San Francisco Bay Guardian for coverage of MediaNews Group’s purchase of nearly all Bay Area paid-circulation daily newspapers.

Salon.com founder David Talbot and Channel 2 political editor Randy Shandobil won the Career Achievement Award.

Malcolm Margolin received the Distinguished Service Award for his contribution to book-length journalism for “The Ohlone Way.”

The Unsung Hero Award went to Fred Goff of the Data Center, a public interest research library in Oakland, who for 30 years has remained committed to making information available to journalists.

A complete list of winners is posted at spj.org/norcal/.

The awards will be presented Nov. 8 at at Yank Sing Restaurant in Rincon Center (Spear and Mission), San Francisco, with with emcees Barbara Rodgers of KPIX CBS5 and Scott Shafer, host of KQED’s “California Report.” Sandy Close, founder of Pacific News Service and New America Media, and Ben Bagdikian, author and former dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC-Berkeley, are serving as honorary chairs of the dinner. To purchase tickets, contact Eva Martinez at emartinez@accionlatina.org.