Home to our most recent fall convention, Massachusetts is rich in history and information.

Programming
1. NESPA Spring Conference
2. NESPA fall workshop
3. NESPA localizing contest
4. NESPA critiques
5. NESPA seasonal workshops
6. NESPA Freedom to Write Award
7. NESPA Robert Barum award

Organizations
8. New England Scholastic Press Association
9. Massachusetts Scholastic Press Association

Local newspapers
10. Boston Globe
11. Boston Herald
12. Telegram & Gazette
13. The Republican
14. Metro Boston
15. The Patriot Ledger
16. The Eagle-Tribune
17. Cape Cod Times
18. Lowell Sun
19. The Berkshire Eagle
20. The Fall River Herald News
21. The Taunton Gazette
22. New Bedford Standard-Times

College Publications
23. The Harvard Crimson
24. The Berkeley Beacon (Emerson)
25. The Huntington News (Northeastern)
26. The Daily Free Press (Boston University)
27. The Heights (Boston College)
28. The Tech (MIT)
29. UMass Amherst Collegian
30. The Comment (Bridgewater State University)
31. The Mass Media (UMass Boston)

Founders
32. Robert Barum founded NESPA in 1948.

Heroes of Scholastic Journalism in Massachusetts
33. Bob Baram
34. Helen Smith
35. Harry Proudfoot
36. State Rep. Nick Paleologos, who was the chair of the House Committee on Education, and spearheaded the passing of the student freedom of expression law.

Teachers who won national awards
37. Barbara A. Wittey, CSPA Gold Key (1963)
38. Bernice Caswell, CSPA Gold Key (1958)
39. Bretton Zinger, CSPA Gold Key (2011)
40. Bretton Zinger, Dow Jones Distinguished Adviser and Special Recognition Adviser
41. Constance E. Grigg, CSPA Gold Key (1959)
42. Dario Politella, CSPA Gold Key (1984)
43. Dr. Aileen O’Grady, CSPA Gold Key (1954)
44. E. Lillian Shaw, CSPA Gold Key (1948)
45. Eleanor Brown, CSPA Gold Key (1954)
46. George L. Moses, CSPA Gold Key (1973)
47. Harry Proudfoot, CSPA Gold Key (2008)
48. Harry Proudfoot, Dow Jones Distinguished Adviser
49. Heald, Mary E. Heald, CSPA Gold Key (1949)
50. Helen Smith, CSPA Gold Key (1987)
51. Helen Smith, Dow Jones Distinguished Adviser
52. Joseph T. LeBlanc, CSPA Gold Key (1991)
53. Katherine Cashman, CSPA Gold Key (1953)
54. Kelly, Dr. John J. Kelly, CSPA Gold Key (1948)
55. Lambert, Bryce Lambert, CSPA Gold Key (1964)
56. Philip Marson, CSPA Gold Key (1956)
57. Rev. William S.J. Power, CSPA Gold Key (1964)
58. Robert Barum, CSPA Gold Key (1986)
59. Sister Edward SSJ Agnes, CSPA Gold Key (1969)
60. Sister Mary Enda Costello, CSPA Gold Key (1988)

Local Committee Chairs
61. Barbara Flanagan, 2001 Boston convention
62. Brian Baron, 2013 Boston convention
63. Bretton Zinger, 2023 Boston convention

National High School Journalists of the Year
64. 2008 Runner up — Katie Sanders, Newton South High School

Famous Massachusetts people in the media
65. Liane Hansen – senior host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday
66. Ray and Tom Magliozzi – of Car Talk
67. Ryen Russillo – sports radio host
68. Paul Sullivan – radio talk host
69. Michelle Bonner – ESPN SportsCenter and ESPNEWS anchor
70. Liz Claman – anchor for Fox Business Network’s Countdown to the Closing Bell
71. S. E. Cupp – pundit and Crossfire panelist
72. Arwa Damon – video correspondent for CNN International and CNN based in Iraq
73. John King – CNN chief national correspondent
74. Steve Kornacki – political commentator on MSNBC and host of Up
75. Katie Nolan – Emmy-winning television host for Fox Sports 1
76. Lawrence O’Donnell – political commentator on MSNBC and host of The Last Word
77. George Stephanopoulos – chief political correspondent for ABC News, co-anchor of Good Morning America
78. Lesley Visser – sportscaster, Boston Globe sportswriter, co-host of The NFL Today
79. Suzyn Waldman – sportscaster for WCBS-AM and color commentator for the New York Yankees
80. Mike Wallace – television personality and journalist, 60 Minutes correspondent
81. Sabrina Tavernise – journalist
82. Kyle Smith – film critic, novelist, essayist
83. Jeff Stein – columnist
84. Dan Shaughnessy – sportswriter
85. Bob Ryan – sportswriter for The Boston Globe
86. Will McDonough – sports writer for the Boston Globe
87. Eileen McNamara – columnist, The Boston Globe
88. Tony Massarotti – sportswriter, The Boston Globe
89. Ronald Kessler – journalist, author, In the President’s Secret Service (Belmont)
90. Sebastian Junger – author, journalist
91. Ellen Goodman – journalist, syndicated columnist, Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1980
92. E. J. Dionne – op-ed columnist for The Washington Post
93. Benjamin C. Bradlee – Editor-in-chief and Vice President of the Washington Post, author, journalist
94. Marjorie Egan, co hosts Greater Boston on WGBH
95. Joyce Kulhawick–Theater critic and president of the Boston Theater Critics Association, presenters of the Eliot Norton Awards

CJE and MJE
96. Bretton Zinger, MJE
97. Paul Nellis, CJE
98. Paul Niwa, CJE
99. Tara Anderson, CJE
100. Brian Baron, MJE

Fun Facts
101. Louisa May Alcott – author, Little Women (Concord)
102. Massachusetts (either as colony or state/commonwealth) has produced four presidents and five vice presidents.
103. Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton, Massachusetts has been publishing since September 1784, making it the eighth-oldest continuously publishing paper in the country.
104. While still in high school in 2013, Chris Cotillo, of Northborough and Algonquin Regional High School, broke news of deals in Major League Baseball.
105. The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) named the city of Boston a National Historic Site in Journalism.
106. The Boston News-Letter, first published on April 24, 1704, is regarded as the first continuously published newspaper in the colony of Massachusetts.
107. The Boston Globe has won 27 Pulitzer Prizes.
108. The Boston Globe Spotlight team wrote the 2002 series of stories that exposed the systemic sexual abuse of children in some Catholic parishes. The 2016 movie adaptation, shot in and around Boston, won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
109. Since 1988, Massachusetts law has protected the right of public students, including student journalists, to publish and disseminate their views. The law says that student expression can only be limited in cases of disruption or disorder within the school. (https://splc.org/know-your-rights-massachusetts/)
110. Students from Newton North and Westport High School spearheaded the effort to pass the Massachusetts law on Student Press Rights in 1988 following the Hazelwood decision. They were aided in this by State Rep. Nick Paleologos, who was the chair of the House Committee on Education.
111. That law was challenged in Yeo v. Lexington (1997). The yearbook staff at Lexington High School in Massachusetts decided against running an ad that advocated abstinence. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled student journalists do have the right to refuse ads: “As a matter of law, we see no legal duty here on the part of school administrators to control the content of the editorial judgments of student editors of publication.”
112. In 1996, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts held in Pyle v. South Hadley School Committee that the (Massachusetts) statute “is unambiguous” and protects the rights of students as long as their expression of views is not disruptive. The Act therefore protects T-shirts which could be considered “vulgar,” but which do not disrupt the educational process. The Pyle decision gives Massachusetts students the broadest free speech rights in the country. (https://louisville.edu/internationalcenter/isss/documents-and-forms/know-your-rights-aclu)