THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 10, 1994 TAG: 9407100085
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
The Virginia Press Association on Saturday named Reader's Digest Editor in Chief Kenneth Tomlinson as Virginian of the Year during the organization's annual summer meeting.
Tomlinson, a Galax native who worked as a reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, has been the top editor at the Reader's Digest since 1990. The publication's circulation of 218 million makes it the world's most widely read magazine.
Speaking to the convention, Tomlinson recalled his hometown's battle over desegregation in the 1960s and the role he and other students took in opposing segregationists.
Tomlinson left Richmond in 1968 and became a Washington correspondent for Reader's Digest. He also served in the magazine's Paris bureau. President Reagan appointed him director of Voice of America, the 42-language broadcasting network of the U.S. Information Agency. Tomlinson returned to the magazine in 1985.
Two Virginia newspaper reporters received the Virginia Bar Association's awards for journalism in the field of law and justice.
O'Donna Ramsey of the Norton Coalfield Progress received the award for newspapers of 40,000 circulation or less for her investigation into how courts deal with domestic violence crimes.
Lynn Waltz of The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star won the prize among larger newspapers for her stories about the state's DNA data bank and its use as crime-fighting tool.
KEYWORDS: AWARDS by CNB