THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB OF AMERICA, NEW YORK, NY • January 2013 Rohde to Speak at Foundation Scholars Luncheon applicants came from a winners go to Reuters EVENT PREVIEW: FEBRUARY 22 wide range of academic Times Square headquarters by Jane Reilly institutions and from every for the traditional recep- David Rohde, foreign affairs region of the country, dem- tion with current and past columnist for Reuters and two-time onstrating the program’s winners the night before winner of the Pulitzer Prize, will be broad appeal. William J. the luncheon. A breakfast the keynote speaker at the annual Holstein, OPC Foundation will be hosted by Holstein OPC Foundation Scholarship Lun- president, noted, “No one and after lunch, the group cheon on Friday, February 22 at the else is doing what we are tours the Associated Press Yale Club. At the event, the Foun- doing.” headquarters and meets dation will award a combination of The OPC Foundation David Rohde with veteran journalists. scholarships and funded internships awards are given in the For many, says Holstein, to 14 graduate and undergraduate names of eminent journalists and me- the opportunity to meet and observe college students aspiring to become dia organizations. New this year will prominent journalists is as valuable foreign correspondents. The scholar- be the awarding of the first Nathan as any monetary award. ship recipients who emerged from S. Bienstock Memorial Scholarship, Media organizations have con- an incredibly competitive field of endowed by the Richard Leibner and tinued to cut back their international more than 160 applications from 70 Carole Cooper Family Foundation. operations and, to the extent they do colleges and universities are from Bienstock was the founder of the cover global stories, their coverage American University in Cairo, Cam- N.S. Bienstock Inc. Talent Agency tends to be sporadic. Holstein read- bridge University (England), Co- which has been recognized as the ily acknowledges there is little the lumbia University, CUNY Graduate leading agency in electronic journal- Foundation can do to reverse that School of Journalism, Dartmouth ism. Leibner is an OPC member. trend, but adds, “What we can do, College, New York University, Tem- Besides addressing a distin- and what we have been doing with ple University, University of Califor- guished audience of more than 200 great success, is identify bright stu- nia-Berkeley and the University of luncheon guests, the scholarship (Continued on Page 2) Minnesota. The OPC Foundation scholarship program has grown dramatically in New Book Captures Calcutta in Photos the past two decades and is now con- sidered the most prominent scholar- EVENT PREVIEW: FEBRUARY 20 ship program in the country for as- by Sonya K. Fry piring correspondents. This year’s OPC member Steven Raymer’s five-year photographic project de- Inside. picts Calcutta, a city of 15 million people, as a cultural, literary and Holiday Party Recap and Photos.....3 intellectual center. His new book Joe Breen When the News Cycle Paused.......4 Redeeming Calcutta: A Portrait of India’s Imperial Capital [Oxford Steven Raymer in Calcutta. People..........................................5-9 University Press] features such sto- on the history of Calcutta. ries as migrant workers in the jute His photos also present the de- People Remembered......................9 industry, 6,000 licensed rickshaw crepit Victorian-era buildings left Lincoln and the Press....................10 drivers and tasters of the largest tea auctioneer in the world. In addition over from the time when Calcutta New Books....................................12 to the photography, there is an essay (Continued on Page 3) (OPC Foundation Scholars Luncheon Continued From Page 1) Rohde began his career at ABC News in 1990 and dents who wish to become foreign correspondents, sup- then headed overseas as a freelance reporter based in port their efforts, and help them launch careers in inter- the Baltic republics, Cuba and Syria. He served as a national journalism.” In providing them a network of county and municipal reporter for The Philadelphia In- support, he says, “We are upholding the notion that it is quirer from July 1993 to June 1994 before joining The a noble calling to take the first rough cut at history by Christian Science Monitor. He initially covered national being present to witness the often tumultuous changes news, before becoming the newspaper’s Eastern Euro- occurring in the world and then explaining those events.” pean correspondent. He joined The New York Times in It is precisely to help these students launch overseas April 1996 and worked for them through mid-2011 when careers that the Foundation began and has now expand- he joined Reuters. He reported from Afghanistan for the ed its internship program. Begun in 2006 with one AP first three months of the U.S.-led war against the Tali- intern, the program in 2012 funded eight scholars, who ban and served as co-chief of the Times’s South Asia bu- are chosen from among the scholarship winners, for in- reau from 2002 to 2005. He is also the author of End- ternships at AP bureaus in Bangkok, Jerusalem, Johan- game: The Betrayal and Fall of Srebrenica, Europe’s nesburg and Moscow, and to Reuters bureaus in Beijing, Worst Massacre Since World War II (1997) and Beyond Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur. The Foundation also sent War: Reimagining American Influence in a New Middle its first Forbes intern to the Forbes Asia bureau in Mum- East, which will be published in April. bai, India. The Foundation picks up the cost of the airfare Holstein is grateful to Bloomberg for hosting the and one month’s living expenses for the winners. Interns judging and to the panel of judges who chose the 2013 usually use their own funds to extend their stays. recipients: Jacqueline Albert-Simon, Politique Interna- Holstein is especially pleased that someone of Ro- tionale; John Daniszewski, AP; Bob Dowling; Eddie Ev- hde’s stature in the industry is addressing this year’s ans, Reuters; Allan Dodds Frank; Jonathan Gage, Boston winners. Rohde won his first Pulitzer Prize in 1996 and Consulting Group; Sharon Gamsin; Sally Jacobsen, AP; the OPC Hal Boyle Award for a series of stories in The Felice Levin; Jeremy Main; Larry Martz; Rosalind Mas- Christian Science Monitor that helped uncover the mas- sow; Kate McLeod; Steve Swanson, The New York Bo- sacre of 8,000 Muslims in the town of Srebrenica in Bos- tanical Garden; and Karen Toulon, Bloomberg. nia. He won his second Pulitzer in 2009 as part of an Luncheon tickets are $75 for OPC members and $125 eight-reporter team from The New York Times for their for non-members. The Foundation encourages media and coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan. While in Afghani- corporate support at its three levels of giving: Benefac- stan in November 2008, he was kidnapped by members tors, $9,000; Patrons, $6,000; and Friends, $3,000. Ta- of the Taliban and spent seven months in captivity before bles seat 10. The reception is at 11:30 a.m.; the luncheon managing to escape in June 2009. A Rope and a Prayer: ends promptly at 2 p.m. All proceeds benefit the OPC A Kidnapping from Two Sides, the book he co-wrote with Foundation. For more information, contact Jane Reilly at his wife Kristen Mulvihill in 2010. 201-493-9087 or [email protected]. OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB OF AMERICA • BOARD OF GOVERNORS PRESIDENT SECRETARY Deidre Depke Santiago Lyon ASSOCIATE BOARD PAST PRESIDENTS Michael Serrill Jonathan Dahl Executive Editor VP and Director of MEMBERS EX-OFFICIO Assistant Managing Former Editor-in-Chief The Daily Beast Photography Brian Byrd David A. Andelman Editor Smart Money Associated Press Program Officer John Corporon Bloomberg Markets Adam B. Ellick NYS Health Allan Dodds Frank ACTIVE BOARD *Video and Print Marcus Mabry Foundation Alexis Gelber FIRST VICE PRESIDENT Jacqueline Albert- Journalist Editor at Large William J. Holstein Tim Ferguson Simon The New York Times International Herald Emma Daly Marshall Loeb Editor U.S. Bureau Chief * on leave attending Tribune Communications Larry Martz Forbes Asia Politique Internationale Harvard Kennedy School Director Roy Rowan John Martin Human Rights Watch Leonard Saffir SECOND VICE PRESIDENT Amar C. Bakshi Arlene Getz Writer/Editor Larry Smith Abigail Pesta JD/MBA student Editor-in-Charge, Media Sarah Lubman Richard B. Stolley Editorial Director Yale University Thomson Reuters Romesh Ratnesar Partner Women in the World Deputy Editor Brunswick Group EXECUTIVE Rebecca Azmat Khan Bloomberg DIRECTOR THIRD VICE PRESIDENT Blumenstein Digital Producer Businessweek Minky Worden Sonya K. Fry Toni Reinhold Page One Editor PBS - Frontline Director of Global Editor in Charge, The Wall Street Journal Tom Squitieri Initiatives EDITOR New York Desk Evelyn Leopold Freelance Journalist Human Rights Watch Aimee Vitrak Reuters Paul Brandus Independent Journalist West Wing Report United Nations Seymour Topping Abi Wright OPC TREASURER Emeritus Director ISSN-0738-7202 Dorinda Elliott Howard Chua-Eoan Daphna Linzer Professor of Alfred I. duPont – Copyright © 2002 Global Affairs Editor News Director Senior Reporter International Columbia University Over seas Press Club of Conde Nast Traveler Time Pro Publica Journalism Awards America Columbia University 40 West 45 Street, New York, NY 10036 USA • Phone: (212) 626-9220 • Fax: (212) 626-9210 • Website: opcofamerica.org OPC Bulletin • January 2013 • Page 2 Holiday Party Kicks Off OPC’s 2013 Event Calendar EVENT RECAP: JANUARY 3 by Susan Kille Was it that the maddening last weeks of December were over? Or perhaps it was the flattering rosy light of overhead heat lamps? Whatever it was, the OPC members at the Holiday Party on January 3 looked both relaxed and animated. They were relaxed among friends while animated by those friends. Shifting small groups kept up a buzz of con- versations at the tables and in the open spaces of the Ter- From left: Robert Nickelsberg, Allan Dodds Frank, Jane race Club at the Rockefeller Center Club Quarters.