BY MARY REINHOLZ | The National Arts Club in Gramercy Park is officially closed for the summer. But neither heat of day nor dark of humid night can keep intrepid female newsies from entering the Victorian mansion if there’s a seminar or meeting concerning their craft.
Guardians of the august building admit them when they flash cards showing membership in the Newswomen’s Club of New York, a venerable institution that has had access to the N.A.C.’s facilities and cash bar for about 25 years.
Early in June, less than a month before the N.A.C. shut down, about 15 members of this old girls’ network gathered in Room 205 to mark their organization’s 93rd anniversary.
“Congratulations, ladies,” said club president Toni Reinhold, who’s in charge of Thomson Reuter’s New York desk. “We’ve made it to our 93rd anniversary and we’re already planning for our 100th. We’re thinking of holding it at the Plaza or the Waldorf Astoria,” she added in a nod to the good old days when the club, founded by prominent newspaperwomen who had covered the suffragist movement, hosted A-list parties at swank hotels. One of its past presidents was famed gossip columnist Louella Parsons.
Reinhold, an energetic blonde who first won election in 2009 after a contentious race for the top slot, focused much of her remarks on the club’s prestigious Front Page Awards, an annual competition held since 1937 to honor high-achieving women in the news business. Entries will be accepted up until Sept. 6 for work published, issued, broadcast or e-published between Sept. 1, 2014, and Aug. 31, 2015. Reinhold and her recently re-elected slate of officers have been urging newswomen of all stripes to enter the competition.
Membership in the club is not required for applicants to submit entries in categories like spot news and in-depth reporting, so long as they are based in the New York metropolitan area. All entries must be filed electronically on the club’s Web site, where rules and entry fees can also be found, https://www.newswomensclubnewyork.com/front-page-awards-application-2015/ .
Winners will be feted Nov. 12 at a black tie gala held in the ballroom of the Down Town Association’s building at 60 Pine St. Tickets for this year’s awards presentation cost $175 for nonmembers and $125 for members, a price that includes a three-course dinner.
This freelance reporter, an on-again, off-again club member for years, asked Reinhold about current judges of the entries in an e-mail. The club president did not identify any by name but characterized them as professionals “who understand quality and factual journalism.” She noted that proceeds from the event cover the cost of the competition. The balance, she said, helps to maintain the club and its programs.
Longtime club member Betsy Wade, a former top copy editor at The New York Times who edited the Pentagon Papers, said winning a Front Page Award is hardly equivalent to garnering a Pulitzer.
“But it’s a chance for women whose work might not get on the front pages of The Times or the Washington Post to get recognition for good stuff,” she observed.
Winners receive a glass trophy with an engraving of the club’s distinctive logo — a stylish newswoman astride Pegasus, the flying horse of Greek mythology, churning out copy on a typewriter. There are no cash prizes.
Rosalind Massow, a former club president, has won three Front Page Awards. She said the most memorable was one she earned in 1960 for her series on anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union for the New York Journal-American.
“I went to Russia in 1959 and could have been arrested,” she recalled. She added she received a certificate back then, “which I framed.”
There are now 220 members of the Newswomen’s Club, up from 180 last year. Becoming a member is no easy task,especially for freelancers, said Alana Esposito, the club’s first vice president and chairperson of its membership committee.
“First, you have to prove you’re a newswoman,” Esposito, herself a freelancer, said. “We require a certain number of clips — three clips from the past six months — and we go over them with a fine-tooth comb. We also ask staff writers for clips” when they apply, she added.
She noted that writers engaged in public relations work would not be allowed to renew membership in the club if “PR is their primary profession.”
Members enjoy a variety of benefits, such as opportunities to network at “No Agenda” meetings Tuesday nights at watering holes like the White Horse Tavern in Greenwich Village. Esposito said some formal educational programs can cost $25 or less and many are free. Students and aspiring journalists can join as associate members for $75, the same annual fee paid by members for years.
For information on joining the club or obtaining tickets for the Front Page gala, email newswomensclub@verizon.com.
