Media Institute Awards For Lougee, Herbst

The Media Institute will bestow awards on Dave Lougee, president-CEO of Tegna, and Jeffrey Herbst, immediate past president and CEO of the Newseum, at its annual Friends & Benefactors Awards Banquet on Wednesday, Sept. 27.  The event will take place at the Washington Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington, D.C. 

Lougee will receive the American Horizon Award for “his visionary industry leadership.” Presenting the award will be Gordon Smith, president-CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters and a former U.S. senator.

Herbst will receive the Freedom of Speech Award for his efforts in support of free speech and a free press. The award will be presented by George B. Irish, eastern director of The Hearst Foundations.

The master of ceremonies will be communications attorney and former FCC chairman Richard E. Wiley.

Lougee spent 10 years as president of Tegna Media prior to becoming CEO. Lougee serves as chairman of the NBC Affiliates Board and is the immediate past joint chairman of the NAB.

Herbst is the immediate past president and CEO of the Newseum in Washington. From 2010 to 2015, he was president of Colgate University. Previously he taught and held senior positions at Miami University in Ohio, and before that taught for 18 years at Princeton University, his alma mater.   

U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) will deliver keynote remarks. She is currently Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. Blackburn is known as a bipartisan leader and policy expert on telecommunications issues and intellectual property rights.