People Paper's Baer wins award for excellence
The political columnist was named the recipient of the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Associations 2015 Benjamin Franklin Award.
POLITICAL columnist John Baer of the Daily News has won the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association's 2015 Benjamin Franklin Award for Excellence.
The award, established in 1998, recognizes people whose work reflects positively on the news media in Pennsylvania.
Baer, 68, who joined the People Paper in 1987, helped found the Pennsylvania Press Club, regularly teaches at colleges and universities in the Philadelphia area and mentors aspiring journalists, among other contributions.
A Harrisburg native who lives in nearby New Cumberland, he is a graduate of Mount St. Mary's University in Maryland and earned a master's degree from Temple University.
"Readers see him as their champion, the guy who smacks the politicians when they deserve it," said Daily News assistant managing editor Gar Joseph. "Whenever there is a big story in state government, the first thing I think of is, 'I wonder what Baer's take is on this.' I suspect there's a couple of generations of people across the state asking the same question."
The Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association is a 90-year-old nonprofit trade group with more than 300 member newspapers and online news organizations.
The award will be presented Nov. 12 in Hershey.
- Solomon Leach