About the Payne Awards

Ancil Payne, a legend in Seattle broadcasting, established the Payne Awards at the School of Journalism and Communication in 1999 to “to honor the journalist of integrity and character who reports with insight and clarity in the face of political or economic pressures and to reward performance that inspires public trust in the media.” Payne, who died in October 2004, was former CEO of KING Broadcasting; under his leadership, the company developed a national reputation for its commitment to ethical journalism.

Judges for the Payne Awards include:

• Professor Tom Bivins, John L. Hulteng Chair of Media Ethics, University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication;
• David Boardman, Executive Editor, The Seattle Times;
• Aly Colón, Reporting, Writing & Editing Group Leader, The Poynter Institute;
• Everette Dennis, Professor/Area Chair for Communications and Media Management and  Director for the Center for Communications at Fordham (New York) University’s Graduate School of Business;
• Tim Gleason, Edwin L. Artzt Dean and Professor, University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication;
• Mark Trahant, Editorial Page Editor, Seattle Post-Intelligencer;
• Mark Zusman, Editor, Willamette Week.

About Ancil Payne

Ancil Payne was born in 1921 in Mitchell in Central Oregon and moved as a child to the Dalles. In high school, he worked the fruit trees in the Dalles to raise money to help support his family. He attended Willamette University, transferring to the UO. He left a year later to serve the Navy in the South Pacific as a lieutenant in WWII; after the war, he earned a Political Science degree and Phi Beta Kappa honors from the University of Washington in 1946.

Immediately after graduation, Payne worked as an aide to U.S. Sen. Hugh B. Mitchell of Washington; it was there he met his wife, Valerie, another Mitchell aide, as well as Stimson Bullit, son of the founders of the King Broadcasting organization. While Payne had been encouraged to run for public office, he opted for journalism as a way to engage people in politics. He joined the staff at King Broadcasting Company in 1959 as an assistant to the vice president, business division. In 1972, he was named President & Chief Executive Officer of King Broadcasting Company, a position he held for fifteen years until his retirement at age 65. Under Payne's leadership, KING-TV became known nationally for its commitment to ethical journalism and was the first station in the Pacific Northwest with a bureau in Washington, D.C.; it was also among the first in the northwest to hire black reporters in the 1960s.

“He was one of the best friends responsible journalism ever had,” Joann Byrd’64, retired editorial page editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, said. “By extension, he was one of the great sponsors of an informed and knowledgeable public.“

Payne himself became known as a force to be reckoned with and a businessman of the highest integrity. In his KING-5 broadcasting obituary, reporter Lori Matsukawa wrote, “He didn't have a lick of broadcast experience when he was hired by executives at KING Television in 1959. He would eventually turn an eclectic hodgepodge of businesses into a $400 million broadcasting and cable empire.”

He will be remembered for his passionate giving of time, money, and energy, contributing to the arts, politics, education and general well being of his community throughout his lifetime. He established college scholarships for Dalles High School students whose families were orchard workers as well as a scholarship at Willamette University. He served as President of Operation Statehood of Alaska in the mid-1950s, served as Director of the Oregon State Board of Higher Education and served as Chairman of the National Broadcasting Company Board of Affiliates. He served on Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication Journalism Advancement Council from its inception. In recognition of his career and his community involvement, the University of Oregon gave Payne its Pioneer Award in 1984.

The Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism were created at the SOJC in 1999, “to honor the journalist of integrity and character who reports with insight and clarity in the face of political or economic pressures and to reward performance that inspires public trust in the media. “It was at a lunch meeting,” Dean Tim Gleason remembers. He wanted to do something to improve ethics—to reward people doing good work and to inspire people to do good work. The Payne Awards was the result.”

Payne was very involved in all facets of the awards process, according to Gleason. While he did not vote, he sat in on the judging sessions or participated via conference calls. He attended the awards each year until 2004, when failing health prevented the trip to Eugene. “He loved it,” according to Gleason.

Joann Byrd, who served as a Payne Awards judge from 1999 until 2006, calls them a “wonderful legacy.” Every year, they keep reminding people every year that heroically ethical journalism is to be celebrated,” she says.

In a letter to the Payne family after Ancil’s death, Stacey Woelfel of KOMU-TV at the University of Missouri remembered meeting Ancil Payne at the 2002 Payne Awards. “…what I remember most is what I recognized in the man—the grin, the handshake, the way he walked. In all those characteristics, I recognized the sure sign of a man so content with his life and his accomplishments, so clear in why he was alive and put on this earth, so comfortable with who he was. I saw clearly then and still see clearly now that this man is a model for all of us. He lived his life the way I want to live mine, making a difference to my chosen field, my community, and my world… we’ve all got a long way to go before we have the list of accomplishments Ancil was able to build in his lifetime. But just like Ancil did, we have to start somewhere.”

“Mr. Payne’s passing is a real loss to the journalism community,” Megan O’Matz, a reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, wrote the family. “His mere being was a reminder to us all to act with integrity, produce insightful, thoughtful work, and to tell it like it is.”

Payne died October 2, 2004 in Seattle. Friends and colleagues packed Seattle’s Town Hall for a memorial service for Payne on October 23, 2004. Former mayor of Seattle Charles Royer ‘66, who worked for Payne at KING Broadcasting called it an “uplifting civic experience as well as a powerful teaching moment, coming as it did in the midst of a less than uplifting national political campaign.”

“Ancil would have loved it,” Royer said. “Monroe Sweetland, ninety-five and blind, came up from Oregon. The former newspaper publisher, state representative, state senator, and lifetime advocate for education, worked the crowd like a pro, remembering politics and civic engagement when it was fun. Aaron Brown, the CNN anchor, one of the many young broadcasters Ancil mentored—like Lou Dobbs, Jim Compton, Floyd McKay and others--had kept in touch with Ancil after his retirement—and remembered the glory days of King Broadcasting, when television news was breaking new ground in journalism and was fun to boot. Tough, compassionate, ethical, high standards, and loving every minute of the game. That's what we remembered--and celebrated--about Ancil and his remarkable civic and political life. His memorial left everyone wanting those things back.”

“He was an extraordinary man,” School of Journalism and Communication Dean Gleason said. “We should all be half as good.”