The Atlanta Press Club added four journalists to the Atlanta Press Club Hall of Fame in a ceremony on Oct. 28. The 2024 class of inductees includes the late Valerie Boyd, Clark Howard, Tony Light and SaportaReport’s own founder, Maria Saporta.
Every year since 2011, the city’s professional journalism association recognizes the lifetime contributions of Atlanta and Georgia-based journalists. The annual dinner and ceremony is the nonprofit’s biggest fundraiser.
According to the press club, the inductees “have made outstanding contributions either to journalism in Georgia or the country and the world at large, often courageously overcoming many obstacles to pursue, find and share the truth.”
Media leaders, active journalists and sponsors came together at the InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta to celebrate the new members and reflect on the state of journalism in the country.
“Hosting the Atlanta Press Club Hall of Fame event each year celebrates the enduring impact of journalism on our society,” Atlanta Press Club Executive Director Julia Boyd said. “It brings together industry leaders, recognizes remarkable careers, and reaffirms our commitment to upholding the highest standards in reporting, inspiring journalists today and in the future to continue this vital work.”
Atlanta Press Club Board Chair and Rough Draft Atlanta publisher Keith Pepper said the event also shows investment in journalism and the best of the field when the path is “not clear” for many entering the industry.
“It’s really an investment, not only in events like this, in our Newsmaker series, in the networking events,” Pepper said. “It’s an investment in the next generation of journalists.
Pepper was recognized for his work in expanding and bolstering the Atlanta Press Club through events like the “Newsmakers” event series and the college internship placement program. Boyd said he brought a “publisher’s eye” to the nonprofit and found new ways to expand the brand.
The program then dove into each of the four inductees. The first was the late Valerie Boyd, who passed away on February 12, 2022. Boyd was a widely awarded and recognized journalist and the Charlayne Hunter-Gault Professor of Journalism at the University of Georgia. She also founded and directed the low-residency MFA program in narrative nonfiction.
Valerie Boyd’s longtime partner, Veta Goler, accepted the award on Boyd’s behalf.
“In her professional life, she was an amazing journalist, writer, editor and teacher, and personally, she was a fantastic partner, friend, family member, cheerleader, connector, supporter and all-around human being,” Goler said.
Boyd was known widely for her writing on author Zora Neale Hurston. In the early 1900s, Hurston published four novels and several stories exploring the experience of being a Black woman in the South, though she wasn’t widely known until the 1970s.
Goler said Boyd was “committed to telling Black women’s stories in ways that highlighted the truth and that revealed their inner lives as much as possible.” Her book, “Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston” won the Southern Book Award and the American Library Association’s Notable Book Award.
“Valerie truly believed the divide between journalism and literature was a false one, so she used her reporting prowess to make a deep impression on the literary world,” journalist, a longtime friend of Boyd, and presenter Moni Basu said.
Boyd published two books posthumously, “Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker” and “Bigger than Bravery: Black Resilience and Reclamation in a Time of Pandemic.”
Renowned consumer advocate and financial expert Clark Howard was the next inductee. Howard has been a presence on people’s airwaves for decades, known for his “cheapskate” attitude and wallet-friendly tips. He has hosted “The Clark Howard Show” since 1989, giving out tips on personal finance and consumer protection for decades.
Howard started his radio career with the Clark Howard Show on WGST radio in Georgia in 1989, and the show was later nationally syndicated. In 1991 he became a consumer affairs reporter for WSB-TV, and he founded the Consumer Action Center in 1993.
In the years since, Howard has started a national podcast and website where he continues his consumer education. He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2015.
“Everything I try to stress is to bring power in your life by living on less than you make,” Howard said. “That’s the core philosophy, but how it’s brought to a viewer, a listener, a reader – whatever way somebody is touched is because I have the most wonderful people.”
The Atlanta Press Club then inducted Tony Light, the chief photographer at WSB-TV in Atlanta. Light has worked at the station for over 40 years. It’s his only job listed on LinkedIn, and the staff described him as an institution at the station.
“I refer to him as Tony Flashlight because when there is darkness, he often illuminates any room that he is in, he is truly the light at the end of the tunnel,” WSB-TV journalist and presenter Tom Jones said.
Light has brought his visual coverage to a variety of events and stories over the years, spanning elections, protests and human interest stories. He was inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle in 2018.
Light celebrated 40 years at WSB-TV in 2017, but he hasn’t slowed down since.
“He is always willing and able to do whatever it takes to get the job done,” Jones said. “It’s such a pleasure to have worked with him. He has always been calm and collected, and he has just been someone I adore as a photographer and a person.”
Light said that while he didn’t originally realize this would be his lifelong career, he loves his job.
“We have an obligation to serve, to help,” Light said.
As a journalist, he helps by “making people care” by pushing police, politicians and people in power by telling stories.
The final inductee of the night was SaportaReport’s founder and executive editor Maria Saporta. She is a longtime Atlanta business, civic and urban affairs journalist with knowledge about the city that spans decades.
A lifelong Atlantan, Saporta spent 27 years as a reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She became a business columnist in 1991 before later transitioning to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, where she wrote stories and a weekly column from 2008 to 2020.
Saporta decided to create SaportaReport in 2009 to foster civic journalism in the city. She also co-founded the nonprofit Atlanta Way 2.0 in recent years, which aims at “strengthening Atlanta’s civic fabric” by promoting engagement from all people.
“There’s one reporter you and I know who exemplifies the highest standards of our profession, standards of accuracy and fairness and responsibility,” journalist, media executive and presenter Tom Johnson said.
Maria Saporta has received recognition from many organizations in and around Atlanta: In 2012, she was inducted into the Georgia State University Business Hall of Fame; in 2013 she received the Atlanta Business League CEO Award for Vision of Excellence; in 2018 she received the inaugural “Atlanta Hero” award from the Rotary Club and in 2019 she was inducted into Georgia Trend’s Hall of Fame.
Saporta was also recognized for her work with the Atlanta Press Club. Many of the current leaders, including board chair Keith Pepper, said she was fundamental to their relationship with the nonprofit. Saporta was president of the organization and served on the board for 35 years. Today, she serves in an emeritus role and co-chairs the Press Club Loudermilk-Young Debate Series.
In her remarks, Saporta recognized her proudest accomplishments as a reporter and her relationships with everyone in the room before looking to the future.
“We have an obligation to make sure we are covering our communities accurately and constructively, exposing what’s wrong and showcasing what’s working,” Saporta said.
That’s what she has worked to do in 44 years as a journalist and 16 years as the head of SaportaReport. It’s also what she aims to do with the Atlanta Way 2.0.
“The next chapter of my life, my focus will be to help nurture that next generation of journalists, civic journalists in Atlanta and beyond,” Saporta said.
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