As publisher of the Chattanooga Times in 1877, Adolph Ochs (who would later purchase the New York Times) added a slogan to the paper's masthead: "To give the news impartially, without fear or favor." This quote remains on top of current issues of the Chattanooga Times Free Press today, now owned by WEHCO Media.

WEHCO, a fourth-generation, family-owned, 115-year-old newspaper company, is under the leadership of the founder's grandson, Walter E. Hussman, Jr., who proudly prints that exact phrase on the top page 2's Statement of Core Values, within their flagship paper, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. At the bottom of the space, Hussman displays a quote from his father, the late Walter Hussman, Sr.: "A newspaper has five constituencies, including first its readers, then advertisers, then employees, then creditors, then shareholders. As long as the newspaper keeps those constituencies in that order, especially its readers first, all constituencies will be well served."

Hussman explained that he began displaying those values in each edition in 2017 because of his increasing concern at the loss of public trust in news reporting. He cited a Gallup Poll with the Knight Foundation that surveyed 20,000 people in all 50 states, revealing this lack of trust was worse than ever and at record lows. Gallup now does the same yearly poll, which recently showed that confidence in newspapers was down to 16% — a new record low.

"Our family thinks a center to explain the virtues of impartiality, fairness and objectivity in news reporting is greatly needed," states Hussman. "Hence, this is our reason to trademark the name 'Center for Integrity in New Reporting.' And we decided the first thing to do is reward the best examples of that in news reporting across all news media, print, broadcast, cable television, and digital."

With this in mind, Hussman is announcing that the new Center is hosting the inaugural "$100,000 of Awards for News Reporting," which consists of four individual $25,000 awards (print, broadcast, cable & digital), for "The most fair, impartial, objective news reporting that has the courage to not fear and the discipline to not favor." The Newspaper Association Managers organization will judge entries.

The call for entries begins on Monday, January 29th, 2024. Entries can be submitted online at JournalismAwards.unc.edu (Note: This link will be live on 1/29/2024). Questions can be sent via email to [email protected].

In this episode of "E&P Reports," we chat with WHECO Media CEO Walter E. Hussman, Jr. about his fourth generational family commitment to supporting fairness in journalistic reporting and how those tenets have motivated their family foundation to offer $100,000 in cash prizes to recolonize the best in fair, impartial and objective news reporting.