The year without its namesake: Al Neuharth Award 2014

Peter Prichard, former editor of USA Today, was awarded the 2014 Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in the Media. The Oct. 9 ceremony was the first to be held at the University of South Dakota since the death of media leader and USD graduate Al Neuharth. 

"It's a great honor to get the Neuharth Award. Al was a great innovator and great newspaper man. There are a lot of great people that got this award," Prichard said. "I don't really think I deserved it but I'm honored – humbled."

Prichard served as president of the Newseum and Freedom Forum until January 2009, and currently is chair of the Newseum board of trustees. He was editor of USA Today, the nation’s largest-circulation newspaper, from 1988 to 1995, longer than any other editor in the newspaper's history. 

During his tenure, USA Today won several national journalism awards, and its circulation increased from 1.4 million to 2.3 million — surpassing the Wall Street Journal.

Prichard joined the likes of Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric by receiving the honor. He was presented the award at an evening presentation, but was part of a panel discussion on politics and journalism earlier in the afternoon. 

The panel included Carson Walker, Associated Press news editor for the Dakotas; Gene Policinski, chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute; Chad Newswander, associate professor of political science at USD; and Prichard. 

Prichard said journalism does not seem as appealing for young people to get into because of statistics that read that only 40 percent of Americans believe the media is trustworthy and unbiased. 

"I would like to see more complete stories with more attention to fairness, with more thorough reporting and less opinion-driven journalism," he said. "We have all this great technology, it makes it possible really for almost anyone to be a journalist and get a story our there instantly. But a lot of it is not really very good, and often not fair, and sometimes not even true. I'd like to see higher standards."

Policinski would later host the award ceremony and said Prichard provided signal leadership at the nation’s first national newspaper and at the Newseum, the museum of news in Washington, D.C. that was started by Al Neuharth. 

“Peter added immensely to the success of each, and continues to help the Newseum be responsive to the continued changes in how news is gathered and reported,” Policinski said. 

Peter Prichard starts acceptance speech with remembering USD alum Al Neuharth. #MCOM325 pic.twitter.com/DjwG3EOBX7
— MiC (@IvesCard) October 9, 2014

Jan Neuharth, adult daughter of the late media mogul, introduced Prichard during the evening ceremony. The last person to receive the Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in the Media was Gwen Ifill, who received the 2013 recognition in June while working for PBS Newshour in Washington, D.C.

Prichard credited Al Neuharth with the major highlights of his career, but also spoke about the future of the industry. 

"It's the best of times and the worst of times. We have more access to news and information than ever, but part of the problem is that newspapers have been so damaged by the economic troubles that they don't have the reporting staffs to do the work that they used to do. That's a problem for readers and possibly for democracy," he said.