Fred Anklam Jr., a senior editor at USA Today, has been chosen to receive the 2015 Samuel Talbert Silver Em Award from the University of Mississippi’s Meek School of Journalism and New Media.
The award will be presented at a dinner April 8 at the Inn at Ole Miss, starting at 6 p.m. Tickets are $25 and are available by contacting Paula Hurdle at 662-915-7146 or pchurdle@olemiss.edu.
Photo courtesy UM Communications
The school’s highest honor in journalism, the award dates to 1958. Recipients must be Mississippians with notable journalism careers or journalists with notable careers in Mississippi – or both, which is the case with Anklam.
Though born in Kentucky where his father was an Army officer, Anklam spent his formative years in Vicksburg, where he graduated from St. Aloysius High School in 1972. After a year at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he completed his college degree in journalism, with minors in anthropology and English, at Ole Miss. He was a staffer of The Daily Mississippian student newspaper and a member of Sigma Delta Chi, and the Society of Professional Journalists.
For six years after graduation, Anklam was a reporter for The Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger where, as part of a team in 1982, he worked on a six-month investigation of Mississippi schools and a related special legislative session that led to a Pulitzer Prize.
“Of all the students we’ve had in journalism, he’s one I am so impressed with because of how humble he is. He didn’t let success go to his head,” said Will Norton Jr., dean of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. “He uses his reporting ability for the betterment of his community.”
Anklam has many additional awards, including a 1981 first place from the Education Writers Association for investigative reporting on unsafe schools. Two more awards came from that group in 1982, followed by a Roy W Howard Public Service Award in 1983.
His career with Gannett News Service and, later, USA Today, began in Washington. In 1986, he was the first USA Today reporter assigned full time to cover the U.S. House. Starting in 1988, Anklam was tapped as an editor for the national newspaper. He has had roles as night national news editor, White House editor, news/international editor, news/chief operations editor and news editor.
Those roles led to his current position, where he supervises USA Today coverage at night and during the early morning hours, oversees production of the domestic editions and local inserted editions as well as the Tropics edition. He serves as backup to the Page 1 editor and directs coverage on all USA Today platforms, digital and print.
Charles Overby was executive editor of The Clarion Ledger when the Pulitzer was won. He was later a top executive for the newspaper’s parent company, Gannett, before being named CEO and chairman of the Freedom Forum.
“Fred has this great ability to be a nice guy, but a tough reporter,” Overby said. “He knows the right question to ask.”
Anklam’s spouse, Cissy Foote Anklam, is an independent museum consultant and is also an Ole Miss graduate. They have three adult children.
The Meek School of Journalism and New Media was founded in 2009, funded with an endowment gift by Ed and Becky Meek. It offers bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in both journalism and integrated marketing communications on the Oxford campus and in coordination with satellite campuses. Because of the increasing variety of media careers, enrollment continues to rise in the Meek School, which has nearly 1,200 undergraduate journalism and IMC majors.
PREVIOUS SILVER EM HONOREES
1958 – George W. Healy Jr.
1959 – Turner Catledge
1960 – Kenneth Toler
1961 – John Oliver Emmerich
1963 – George McLean
1964 – William B. Street
1965 – Purser Hewitt
1966 – Hal C. DeCell
1967 – Paul Pittman
1968 – Hodding Carter Jr.
1969 – Willie Morris
1970 – T.M. Hederman Jr.
1971 – Joseph R. Ellis
1972 – Wilson F. Minor
1973 – Mark F. Ethridge
1975 – H.L. Stevenson
1976 – William Raspberry
1977 – Joe L. Albritton
1978 – James A. Autry
1979 – James Nelson
1980 – Mary-Lynn Kotz
1981 – Curtis Wilkie
1982 – Harold Burson
1983 – John O. Emmerich
1984 – Hazel Brannon Smith
1985 – Charles Overby
1986 – W.C. “Dub” Shoemaker
1987 – Charles Dunagin, Larry Speakes
1988 – Edward Fritts
1989 – Rudy Abramson
1990 – Hodding Carter III
1991 – James L. McDowell
1992 – Rheta Grimsley Johnson
1993 – Dan Goodgame
1994 – Robert Gordon
1995 – Jere Hoar
1996 – Gregory Favre
1997 – Stephanie Saul
1998 – Lerone Bennett
2000 – Jerry Mitchell
2001 – Bert Case
2002 – Ira Harkey
2003 – Jim Abbott
2005 – Otis Sanford
2006 – Dan Phillips
2007 – Stanley Dearman
2008 – Ronnie Agnew
2009 – Stan Tiner
2010 – Terry Wooten
2011 – Patsy Brumfield
2012 – Greg Brock
2013 – W. Randall Pinkston
2014 – Fred Anklam Jr.
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