Pam Robinson

Who is Pam Robinson?

Pam Robinson is the co-founder, with Hank Glamann, of the American Copy Editors Society. She was born at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Lorain, Ohio, a blue-collar city on Lake Erie, 27 miles west of Cleveland. The Robinson Prize is named for her.

While a part-time sportswriter and student, she was assigned to cover a Southview High School football game at George Daniel Field in Lorain but barred from using the pressbox because female sportswriters were not permitted. The reason cited was the bad language used by visiting coaches, though female members of the school board were admitted. The bar was lifted a week later after The Journal, her employer, created a fuss.

She served as the first president of ACES, stepping down in 2001, and was succeeded by John Early McIntyre. Robinson worked for the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service, based at Newsday on Long Island, until the paper was sold to Cablevision in 2008. The service closed in 2009. She freelanced for the On Campus program of ABC News for a year and is currently the acting Long Island regional editor for Patch.com, part of AOL.

She has a language-related blog, Words at Work.

ACES grew from several streams, from a report of the American Society of Newspaper Editors citing dissatisfaction among copy editors, to gatherings of copy editors led by Dorothy Wilson and Beryl Adcock and such academic leaders as Bill Cloud, and industry executives, such as Bob Mong and Merv Aubespin. The professional journalism organization offers advice, collegiality and training, including an annual national conference that has become well known in the newspaper industry for its focus on its valuable workshops.