WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Poynter Institute celebrated two veteran political journalists turned news entrepreneurs last week, honoring their success at serving audiences in new ways and building trust in a polarized news landscape. Mike Allen, co-founder and executive editor of Axios, and Jessica Yellin, founder of News Not Noise, were each given the Poynter 50 Make a Mark Leadership Award at a dinner and salon discussion in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 19. Poynter is making the awards, and two more at a similar event Oct. 21 in New York, in honor of its 50th anniversary this year.
When Larry Namer was growing up in Coney Island in the 1960s, his goal was to become a public-school teacher or work in city government. "That was the mind set then," said Namer, a graduate of Mark Twain JHS in Coney Island, Lincoln High School, and later attending Kingsborough Community College and Brooklyn College. While his mother worked for the city, his father drove a truck delivering Pepsi Cola to homes in neighborhoods like nearby Bensonhurst, and Namer would sometimes accompany him. "So, you know my parents, their whole thing was their children should get jobs in city government and retire at 65 and have a pension," he said