For Immediate Release:

Contact:
Andrew M. Scott, Communications Coordinator, (317) 927-8000, ext. 215, ascott@spj.org

LAS VEGAS – The Society of Professional Journalists announces the installation of its 2010-11 president, Hagit Limor, an investigative reporter for WCPO-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Her induction took place on Tuesday, Oct. 5, the final night of the 2010 SPJ Convention & National Journalism Conference, when Limor became president of the most broad-based journalism organization in the country. Limor was president-elect during the past year and will serve as president for one year. She replaces immediate past President Kevin Z. Smith, a journalism instructor at James Madison University.

“Here I am standing before you and I’m truly humbled but look forward to a year of service,” Limor said. “We’re all here for a reason. We have all been drawn to this room at this moment by a common denominator. We’re fighting for a way of life (journalism).”

Among her plans, Limor will push access training across America and continue to explore creating international chapters of SPJ. She also wants to explore creating a Black Hole Award, opposite of the Society’s Sunshine Award, to recognize the worst in access to public records.

“We have future generations to rely on us for factual information,” Limor said. “Only we watchdogs can prevent the worst of history from rising again.”

Limor’s experience with SPJ includes stints as Greater Cincinnati Pro chapter president and membership chairwoman; national Membership Committee member, national Finance Committee chairwoman, and board member of the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation, SPJ’s associated educational arm.

Outside of SPJ, she is WCPO-TV's Emmy and national award-winning investigative reporter. Limor is regarded as a "do-it-all" journalist. She has served as an anchor, general assignment reporter, and now helms the award-winning I-Team. Her abilities as a writer and reporter have garnered Limor dozens of national, state and local awards.

She and videographer Anthony Mirones won first place in the 2008 National Headliner Awards for "Resurrection,” a four-year investigation into pollution from the local international airport. Limor and Mirones also won a 2008 Emmy Award for "Solid Gold Weddings,” a consumer investigation into a wedding video company that brides across the nation claimed did not deliver the videos it promised. Limor and producer/videographer Phil Drechsler won second place in the 2008 National Association of Health Care Journalists competition for "Care-less Denials,” about lack of access to mental health care by a national insurance company.

Limor was born in Israel and moved to the United States at age eight. She received bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University. Her term as SPJ president will last through the joint SPJ/Radio Television Digital News Association conference Sept. 25-28, 2011 in New Orleans.

Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. For more information about SPJ, please visit www.spj.org.

-END-