Dow Jones News Fund exec director Holden to receive award

Richard S. Holden, executive director of the Dow Jones News Fund, will receive the 2010 Gerald Sass Award for Distinguished Service to Journalism and Mass Communication, presented by the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Holden is a longtime business journalist, and the fund pays for about 20 business journalism internships every year.

ASJMC cited Holden for his “many years of service supporting scholastic journalism and encouraging students to consider careers in journalism.” It added, “Holden grew the (college) internship programs exponentially in response to changes in media technology, adding business reporting, real-time news wires, online and sports copy editing programs.”

Holden, a 37-year veteran of Dow Jones & Co., began his career in 1973 on the national copy desk of The Wall Street Journal. He moved to Hong Kong in 1976 as a founding member of The Asian Wall Street Journal and, while there, served as a lecturer-in-residence at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

He returned to New York in 1979 and worked in numerous editing capacities at the Journal, including day news editor, night news editor, national news production manager, copy desk chief and financial editor.

In 1992, he was named the fourth executive director of the News Fund, which was created by Bernard Kilgore and other Dow Jones executives as The Newspaper Fund to foster an interest among high school and college students in journalism careers.

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