Collecting Jane Nickerson Articles

Today I am analyzing some of the article I have collected by New York Times food editor Jane Nickerson. They reveal a variety of topics, many that could be considered hard news.

In the limited world of newspaper food history, Craig Claiborne is
given enormous acclaim. In fact, in June 2011 the New School devoted a
panel to “Craig Claiborne and the Invention of Food Journalism.” The
program noted: “His career skyrocketed when The New York Times hired
him as its first food columnist in 1957. Claiborne's columns, reviews
and cookbooks introduced Americans to a wide range of international
and ethnic food. Other newspapers followed The New York Times’s lead,
and soon a cadre of authoritative newspaper food writers helped attune
millions of Americans to the finer points of good food and cooking.”

This is an overstatement and excludes the career of Jane Nickerson,
who was at the New York Times prior to Claiborne and was likely the
first food editor at the newspaper. My examination of her work shows that too much credit has gone to Claiborne while Nickerson laid the groundwork for food news at the Times.

Food Ethics Article Out for Review

I heard from the editor of Gastronomica yesterday and the article that Lance I wrote is going out to reviewers. Our article is "Food Fight: Accusations of Press Agentry, a Case for Ethics, and the Development of the Association of Food Journalists." In it, we look at the role of food editors, and Milwaukee Journal food editor Peggy Daum specifically, in the development of codes of ethics that related to food journalism - a cornerstone of the women's pages.

Final edits on Eleni Epstein

We have finished our final edits of our article about Washington Star fashion editor Eleni Estein. She won the first fashion award in the Penney-Missouri Award. Her papers are in the National Women and Media Collection - the only fashion editor in the Collection.

The article goes off to a journal for review next week.

Another Jeanne Voltz reference

I have been reading the book, Secret Ingredients, by Sherrie Inness as a possible text for my graduate class which will include material on gender and food. In the book, I came across the name of Jeanne Voltz who was a food editor in the women's pages of the Miami Herald and the L.A. Times.

In this book, Inness refers to Voltz's natural food cookbook: "A return to simple foods is surfacing in unexpected places - the lunch bag of a businessman escaping the devastation of martini lunches." (p 89)

My article about Voltz has been revised and resubmitted.



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Eleni Epstein & Fashion Journalism

I am working on revising my article about Washington Star Fashion Editor Eleni Epstein. It is a biographical piece that I am reworking and adding a section about other overlooked fashion editors. Fashion is one of the four Fs of the women's pages.

I make the argument that these women are worthy of study for the contribution they made to journalism history. They contributed to the social, economic and textile development of their communities. Because these women covered soft news, rather than hard news they have been largely left out of much of journalism history. They deserve to be included just as food journalism is just now earning respect. In the summer of 2011, the Bible for journalists, the Associated Press Stylebook, added a special section devoted to food reporting. According to a press release, the reason for the new section was: ““With all the cooking shows, blogs and magazines focusing on food, as well as growing interest in organic and locally sourced foods, our new food section feels timely and on trend,” said Colleen Newvine, product manager of the AP Stylebook. Fashion journalism also deserve to have its stature raised and its content studied.

AEJMC Talk About Feminism

Today, Lance and I gave our final AEJMC talks in St. Louis. We both addressed feminism. I concluded my talk with a collection of quotes that Los Angeles Times women's page editor Maggie Savoy used to explain feminism to men. For example: "Now, fellas, I know this whole lib thing comes as a shock. Who needs another revolution? This one for heaven's sakes, threatens apple pie. Don't worry, men. Apple pie will not disappear. You may just have to bake it."


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Talk about Penney-Missouri Award Director Paul Myhre

This afternoon I am speaking on an AEJMC panel about using archives. I will address the partnership between Penney-Missouri Award Director Paul Myhre and women's page editors in the 1960s. It is based on the PMA papers at the Missouri Historical Society. That is an image of Paul below.


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False Start, a Heavy Burden and Hugs: Female Firsts in Newspaper Management

Today I am presenting a research paper at AEJMC in St. Louis about three female firsts in newspaper management: Gloria Biggs, Carol Sutton and Janet Chusmir. That is a photo of Janet below. All three women spent the early part of their careers in the women's pages.


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Off to AEJMC in St. Louis

Today we are off to the AEJMC Convention in St. Louis where I present four papers - all with a connection to the women's pages. It is our first time back in the three years since we left St. Louis.

St. Louis was the hometown of Carol Sutton, pictured above. She was a women's page editor in Louisville who rose to the position of managing editor - the first woman to do so at a newspaper that her family did not own. I will be speaking about her this week.

More on food editor Jane Nickerson

In my research on NY Times and Lakeland Ledger food editor Jane Nickerson, I came across this in-house ad. It adds some new information about her work in her years between the newspapers while she was also raising her children. As I suspected, she continued to freelance and did not leave journalism completely.

The Significance of Jane Nickerson

In journalism history, there is always the question of whether a topic or subject is significant. This is my rationale for why Jane Nickerson is important to study. First, her role as first food editor at the NY Times, the nation’s newspaper of record is clearly significant. Unfortunately, her successor Craig Claiborne has widely overshadowed Jane’s role. (To his credit, he does note her accomplishments in his memoir.)

Second, examining her overall career gives journalism history a richer understanding of women’s roles in the industry. If we are to believe the current story of Jane’s career, she left the NY Times to raise her children – it is almost as if she retired from journalism. The truth is that while she did take time off to raise her children, she also spent many years as a food editor at the NY Times-owned Lakeland Ledger and wrote one of the most important cookbooks on Florida food.

Third, the role of food journalism in newspapers has been dismissed as fluff or pandering to advertisers. This was far from the truth. After all, Jane’s NY Times column was called: “The News of Food.” And, there was plenty of news to be found. Above it just one example I have discovered.

Penney-Missouri Awards at 12 Years

I recently came across this article from the 1972 Penney-Missouri Award Program. (This was the top honor for women's pages. It was sponsored by the J.C. Penney Company and overseen by the Missouri School of Journalism.) In it, Paul Myhre who oversaw the program wrote about the first dozen years of the program. The program notes that Paul had passed away the previous September.

"So women remain women: Talented, arbitrary, competent, charming, capricious creatures. They are the liberationists; the serious career types; and those who guide and rear the family first and still. Others are finding their first voices, for better or worse. Many millions more are working out of necessity, many are listening and reacting."

He concluded: "After all, hasn't this been the objective of Penney-Missouri Award for more than a dozen years? Helping people report family news more accurately, honestly and creatively than before?"

The papers of the Penney-Missouri Awards are now at the Missouri Historical Society.

Raising the Curtain on Paul Myhre, the Man Behind the Penney-Missouri Awards and the Network of Women It Fostered

Today I was working on my AEJMC paper, "The Wizard of the Women’s Pages: Raising the Curtain on Paul Myhre, the Man Behind the Penney-Missouri Awards and the Network of Women It Fostered." In writing the panel presentation, I came across the letter and speech below between Miami Herald women's page editor Marie Anderson and Penney-Missouri Award Director Paul Myhre. The exchange indicates the special friendship that Paul had with the women's page editors during the 1960s.

Huffington Post Introduces a Women's Page

It was announced yesterday that the Huffington Post will now have a women's section.

According to the blog: "HuffPost Women is a site for women looking to redefine success and what it means to live a healthy, happy, well-rounded life. It will highlight an approach to living that centers on the happiness that comes from feeling good by doing good; that draws attention to the importance of "unplugging and recharging"; that cheers on the continued shattering of glass ceilings; and that embraces a fearless attitude about work, love, money, beauty, relationships, and friendships -- with the understanding that fearlessness is not the absence of fear, it's the mastery of fear. It's about getting up one more time than you fall down."

It is interesting that when newspapers eliminated the women's pages in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was considered progress. It was a sign that news about women would no longer be marginalized in a special section. Now, 30-plus years later, the media model returns to having a special section for women.

As for the argument that these new sections are taking a more progressive approach compared to women's sections of the past, I would counter that history never really examined the content of these sections. It was easier to declare its contents as "fluff." But, in reality, many of these sections had a rich mix of content.

Women's Pages, Women's Clubs and Wearing White Gloves

I am finishing up a paper for the upcoming AEJMC Convention in St. Louis. It is part of the Research Panel Session: Mad Men, Working Women, and History. My paper is called "Mad Men and Reasonable Women: Selling Bras Rather Than Burning Them."

I am going to focus on how women were making some inroads in 1960s adverting in products aimed at women, arguing that the selling of lipstick or bras should not be looked at as “lesser than” the selling of other products especially at a time when there were limited areas for women to claim authority. For a framework, I am making a comparison of Mad Men’s Peggy to Helen Gurley Brown who was a successful advertising copywriter before her time at Cosmo. I am concluding with the idea of re-considering Betty’s limited housewife role as she was also a clubwoman – an often ignored important role for women in communities.

It is the clubwomen and their work that was covered in the women's pages of newspapers. In re-watching Mad Men episodes, I was struck by the white gloves of the 1960s era. This led me to look back at some of my women's page images. I noted that there were several images of the women's pages journalists wearing hats and gloves, such as the above image of Marie Anderson and Dorothy Junrey - the one wearing the gloves in steamy Miami.