McGuigan named to state board of directors, Society of Professional Journalists
Published: March 13th, 2012
Patrick B. McGuigan, an online, print and broadcast reporter with more than three decades of experience in the news business, has been named to board of directors for the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) in Oklahoma.
M. Scott Carter, president of the SPJ Oklahoma Professional Chapter, made the appointment this winter.
“For our board of directors, I wanted a diverse collection of opinions, and a diverse collection of professional journalists. Between the two of us, I think we represent opposite ends of the spectrum,” Carter said. The two men have known each other for more than two decades.
Carter is Capitol Bureau Reporter for The Journal Record, a business newspaper in Oklahoma City.
McGuigan is editor of CapitolBeatOK.com, an online news service with offices in the state Capitol in Oklahoma City. CapitolBeatOK is a project of the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity.
In 2011, its first year of eligibility for competition in the SPJ, CapitolBeatOK won two awards for excellence, including Honorable Mention in the “Best News Website” category, and third place in the “Web Design” category.
Also honored at the 2011 competition were four stories that first appeared on the CapitolBeatOK website, including a third place diversity news story (with Stacy Martin, editor of The City Sentinel) on federal civil rights laws and special needs children, and (with Martin) an honorable mention designation in education reporting. McGuigan individually garnered a third place award for his education reporting.
McGuigan that year won a total of 11 SPJs, eight for reporting and commentaries; and three institutional awards.
McGuigan is also associate publisher and executive editor of The City Sentinel, a weekly subscription-based newspaper in Oklahoma City, recognized as the state’s second best community newspaper in last year’s SPJ competition.
In 2010, McGuigan won eight SPJ awards, including one first place, five second place designations, and two third place honors. His previous honors included multiple SPJ awards dating from the early 1990s, two first place awards from the Associated Press/Oklahoma News Editors, and second in the Amys, a national competition.
McGuigan appears weekly on Capitol Report for News9, a CBS affiliate.
In addition to SPJ, McGuigan is a member of The National Press Club, Tulsa Press Club, and the National Federation of Press Women. He is past president of the Oklahoma City Gridiron Club, a charitable organization comprised of journalists who perform an annual roast of politicians. Proceeds from The Gridiron Show have provided several hundred thousand dollars in scholarships to students studying journalism in Oklahoma.
NOTE: Rodely, a member of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, is past president of the Oklahoma City Gridiron Club, and writes occasionally for CapitolBeatOK.