{"id":439746,"date":"2026-08-21T20:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T20:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/439746\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T20:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T20:48:09","slug":"larry-wilson-quintessential-southern-california-editor-is-one-of-las-2026-distinguished-journalists-daily-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/439746\/","title":{"rendered":"Larry Wilson, \u2018quintessential\u2019 Southern California editor, is one of LA\u2019s 2026 Distinguished Journalists \u2013 Daily News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Larry Wilson, a member of the Southern California News Group\u2019s editorial board and former editor of the Pasadena Star-News, is being honored as a Distinguished Journalist by the Los Angeles Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists \u2013 among seven local honorees who have made a major mark on coverage and the profession.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLarry Wilson is the quintessential journalist,\u201d said Frank Pine, executive editor for the Southern California News Group. \u201cHe is relentlessly committed to the communities he serves. He is a font of institutional knowledge, a wise and talented editor and a man of great character. We are fortunate to count him as a colleague and a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wilson, who grew up in Altadena and was the former longtime editor of the Pasadena Star-News, will be recognized alongside five other local journalists and a First Amendment advocate at the 50th annual awards celebration Wednesday, Oct. 7 at the Castaway Hotel in Burbank.<\/p>\n<p>His career began as a professional journalist as the rock music critic of UC Berkeley\u2019s The Daily Californian \u2014 and until recently served on the Board of Directors. While Wilson has notched many milestones over the years, colleagues noted that he\u2019s done some of his best journalism in recent moments. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pasadenastarnews.com\/author\/larry-wilson\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">His columns<\/a> amid the aftermath of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pasadenastarnews.com\/tag\/eaton-fire\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Eaton fire<\/a>, on his home turf, offered deep perspective on the tragedy of a community he knows so well.<\/p>\n<p>He continues to write a biweekly column for the Southern California News Group, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.socalnewsgroup.com\/publications\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a group of 11 newspapers<\/a> from Los Angeles to Orange County to the Inland Empire.<\/p>\n<p>Among tenures at other press publications, Wilson is also co-founder of LitFest Pasadena.<\/p>\n<p>Along with Wilson, the other Distinguished Journalist honorees include FOX 11 news anchor Christine Devine; co-founder and executive editor of Golden State, Mariel Garza; ESPN NFL analyst Mina Kimes; Paulette Brown-Hinds, founder of Voice Media Ventures and publisher of Black Voice News; and Gary Kohatsu, former editor of the Gardena Valley News.<\/p>\n<p>The chapter\u2019s Freedom of Information Award will go to Ann Burroughs, president and CEO of the Japanese American National Museum and its National Center for the Preservation of Democracy.<\/p>\n<p>The chapter will recognize the 100th anniversary of La Opini\u00f3n, the country\u2019s leading Spanish language daily newspaper, as well as two early-career journalists.<\/p>\n<p>Frank Mottek, business news anchor at KABC, will moderate the event gathering and celebrating Los Angeles area journalists from various media outlets.<\/p>\n<p>The event is at the Castaway Burbank, 1250 E. Harvard Road, Burbank, 91501. Tickets, sponsorships and program advertising can be purchased through SPJ\/LA\u2019s online store. Banquet proceeds benefit chapter programs, including scholarships, journalism education and Freedom of Information issues.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on SPJ, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spj.org\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.spj.org<\/a> or the L.A. chapter website <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spjla.org\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.spjla.org<\/a>, where you can also find a list of past honorees.<\/p>\n<p>Ellen Wang is an intern with the Southern California News Group through a partnership with the Asian American Journalists Association\u2019s Los Angeles Chapter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Larry Wilson, a member of the Southern California News Group\u2019s editorial board and former editor of the Pasadena&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5759,9596,7,48,52,51,47,137,50,49,973,100,5760,136],"class_list":["post-439746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-altadena","tag-burbank","tag-california","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-media","tag-news","tag-san-gabriel-valley","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}