Logo

Price hits ground running to build NATAS’ status

Jul 22, 2002  •  Post A Comment

After only five months on the job as president of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Peter Price has gained a lot of ground on the major goals he set, not for himself, but for the New York-based Academy, which is best-known for dispensing the Daytime Emmys.

Mr. Price said he believes the Academy’s commitment to education was not fully realized, and he has now set in place the building blocks for a new Foundation of the National Academy. The Foundation already has won IRS approval as a charitable organization, and former NATAS Chairman Stanley Hubbard has been named chairman. Long-time TV journalist Av Westin is executive director, and Mr. Price serves as the Foundation’s president.
Mr. Price already is knocking on doors for the funds and relationships that can beef up the Academy’s college scholarship efforts and expand its media literacy projects (a Web site will become a clearinghouse for student-produced webcasts and ideas this fall).
Mr. Price believes the Academy has not exploited the global nature of TV and has proposed reciprocal relationships with NATAS counterparts in England and Canada. He also presided over the launch of a new NATAS chapter in Texas, which he predicts “will be a very powerful, active chapter,” and seen the number of news and documentary Emmy submissions rise to a record 1,600 (nominees will be announced today).
And with the help of Mr. Westin, he is assembling a three-day international tribute to electronic journalism as practiced at its apex on Sept. 11. “There is no more important thing we can do,” Mr. Price said.
Honoring TV journalism
“9/11 to 9/11: A Television Reflection” will be part summit (a high-profile luncheon Sept. 9 at the Essex House in honor of the networks and stations and working journalists to which viewers around the world turned for information about the terrorist attacks) and part symposium (A-list panels convened at Fordham University to discuss how the terrorist attacks and their effects have been covered by television in this country and abroad).
It will be part money-raiser (a new fund started by NATAS will aid families of TV journalists and crews killed in action during the attacks and the war on terrorism) and part celebration. The News Emmys will be handed out Sept. 10, when Roone Arledge will receive a lifetime achievement award presented by Barbara Walters.
Setting the tone for those three days will be a special pullout section, which will be published in the Sept. 9 edition of Electronic Media and will serve as the printed program for the News and Documentary ceremonies.
Also titled “9/11 to 9/11,” the section will list the names of some 4,000 journalists who played roles in the coverage and will be interlaced with essays by NBC’s Tom Brokaw, CBS’s Dan Rather, ABC’s Ted Koppel, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Telemundo News’ Joe Peyronnin, and Univision’s Maria Elena Salinas and Jorge Ramos.