Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — Five distinguished Mahoning Valley journalists will be inducted into the Youngstown Press Club Hall of Fame in September.

Three additional journalists will receive the club’s Excellence in Media Award at the same event.

The Hall of Fame inductees will be Marie Cartwright, former vice president of corporate communications for DeBartolo Properties Management Inc.; the late Paul C. Jagnow, who was managing editor for news at The Vindicator; the late John Nagy, who was WKBN radio news director; Tony Paglia, former senior regional editor at The Vindicator; and Lisa Solley, former managing editor at the Tribune Chronicle.

Recipients of the Excellence in Media Award will be Sydney Canty, a news anchor and reporter at WFMJ-TV21; Chelsea Simeon, digital executive producer at WKBN-TV 27 and WYTV-TV 33; and Margie Lenhart, on-air morning show talent on Willie 95.1 radio.

The Youngstown Press Club also will present its Medal of Merit — an internal award for someone who has made a significant contribution to the club — to Peter H. Milliken, a retired Vindicator reporter.

The inductions will occur and the awards will be presented at the club’s fifth annual Hall of Fame and Awards Dinner at 5 p.m. Sept. 24 at Stambaugh Auditorium. Founded in 1902 and re-established in 2018, the club promotes journalism and related professions in the Mahoning Valley.

MARIE CARTWRIGHT

A graduate of Canfield High School, Cartwright received her bachelor’s degree in journalism and marketing with a minor in political science from Kent State University. After four years at Childress Public Relations in Youngstown, she became public relations and advertising director for the largest men’s formal wear wholesaler and retailer east of the Mississippi River, which was also based in Youngstown.

In 1985, she became public relations director for the Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. and later was promoted to vice president of corporate communications for DeBartolo Properties Management Inc. In 1996, Cartwright joined Glimcher Realty Corp. in Columbus — another mall and community center developer — as vice president of corporate communications.

She worked as a consultant for many years with Revak & Associates and served from 1991-2013 as a board member of a local community bank. Cartwright was a trustee of the Cardinal Joint Fire District from 2006-20 and has been a Canfield Township trustee since 2010.

She has received the Athena Award, the YWCA Woman of the Year Award, several Paul Harris Rotary Fellowships and other honors.

PAUL C. JAGNOW

Jagnow was a Vindicator staffer for more than 46 years. A hard-nosed newsroom leader, he is widely credited with driving dramatic improvements to the newspaper’s coverage and design, even as the paper was challenged by an inexorable erosion of industry economics.

A graduate of Ravenna High School, Jagnow attended Youngstown University, where he was chief photographer and city editor of the student newspaper, The Jambar. At the same time, he worked nights and weekends for The Vindicator, compiling box scores for the sports pages and doing other odd jobs.

He joined the newspaper’s full-time staff in 1960 and went on to become a reporter, assistant state editor, city desk rewrite man, assistant city editor and city editor before being named managing editor for news in 1986. Under his leadership, the paper kept a laser focus on the mob, with unflinching coverage of the indictments and convictions that effectively represented the mob’s last gasp as a powerful force in the Mahoning Valley. In doing so, the paper amassed numerous awards.

Jagnow, who married Vindicator publisher Betty J.H. Brown in 1986, retired in 2006 and died in 2017.

JOHN NAGY

For four decades, thousands of northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania residents listened every morning to Nagy’s local newscasts.

Nagy delivered morning drive-time news on WKBN radio with an authoritative and unmistakable broadcast voice. A dedicated professional journalist, Nagy began his WKBN workdays at 2:30 a.m. to prepare for his newscasts, which started at 5:30 a.m.

He had an encyclopedic knowledge of the Mahoning and Shenango valleys and their news sources. A graduate of Warren G. Harding High School, Nagy attended Kent State University and began his career as a disc jockey at WPIC radio in Sharon.

He later became a disc jockey and newscaster at WHHH radio in Warren before becoming a news reporter, anchor and news director at WKBN radio.

Nagy, who died in 2020, was a member of the Associated Press Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

TONY PAGLIA

Paglia is retired after having spent more than 40 years in community journalism and media and government relations.

A graduate of Lincoln High School in Ellwood City, Pa., he received his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Duquesne University. His first job after college was as a reporter and political writer for The Sharon Herald.

For four years, he was press secretary for U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Vigorito, a Niles native who represented northwestern Pennsylvania. Paglia followed that with a 30-year career as a reporter, bureau chief, Trumbull County editor and senior regional editor at The Vindicator.

He rounded out his career as vice president of government and media relations for the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber.

He is president-elect of the Youngstown Press Club and serves on the board of directors of the St. John XXIII Nursing Home in Hermitage, Pa. Paglia resides in Hermitage.

He and his wife, Rhonda, have three children and eight grandchildren.

LISA SOLLEY

Solley’s interest in journalism began as a child when she played reporter.

She graduated from Youngstown State University, where she was editor of the student newspaper, The Jambar. Solley joined the Tribune Chronicle on a part-time basis in 1986 to type bowling scores, later becoming that paper’s first female sports reporter.

She was a page designer at The Vindicator before returning to the Tribune Chronicle, mainly covering police and courts. Solley won a dozen awards in news, sports, features and column-writing, including a national award for a series on interpersonal violence.

By the time she left the Tribune Chronicle in 2010, she was its managing editor.

She continued her career as director of communications at Area Agency on Aging 11. She coordinated local and state Senior Olympics.

In 2011, she received Help Hotline’s StarFish Award for community service. Solley, who resides in Niles, returned to journalism for a short stint at the Business Journal before retiring in 2021.

SYDNEY CANTY

A Detroit native, Canty received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Wayne State University in 2019 and joined the WFMJ news team in 2020. She was recently promoted to co-anchor of WFMJ’s 11 p.m. news.

Canty records, writes and edits content for several of the station’s newscasts and has demonstrated a knack for obtaining exclusive interviews and reporting impactful stories. She has received honors, including several Emmy nominations and a recent Emmy award for her investigative story on human trafficking, as well as the Mahoning Valley Young Professionals 25 Under 35 Award.

CHELSEA SIMEON

Simeon is a digital executive producer overseeing web content on WKBN.com and WYTV.com and social media.

A Brookfield native and a Youngstown State University journalism graduate, she began her career as a print journalist at the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram. There, she won first place Ohio Associated Press awards for enterprise writing and children’s issues reporting in 2013 and a first-place children’s issues and public service reporting award from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists in 2014.

After Simeon joined WKBN in 2015, she and her co-worker, Jordan Unger, won a first place Ohio AP award for best digital project for reporting on how local communities spent federal COVID-19 relief money.

MARGIE LENHART

Having received a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Slippery Rock University, Lenhart, of New Castle, Pa., is an on-air morning show talent on Willie 95.1 radio.

She and her husband, John Thomas, have created a show that includes local news, weather, sports, music, trivia, listener engagement and support of local charities and non-profit organizations.

Besides Willie 95.1, Lenhart’s nearly 30-year career has included on-air work at radio stations WPIC, Lite Rock 102.9 (now Y-103), WRRO, Oldies 93 WBBG, Mix 96, Mix 98.9 and Froggy 95.1.

She owns Margie Voiceovers at margievoiceovers.com and has voiced commercials, audiobooks, explainer videos, narrations and more.

PETER H. MILLIKEN

Peter H. Milliken was born in New York City and received his Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from New York University and his Master of Arts in Journalism from The Ohio State University.

He joined The Vindicator in 1981 and spent 36 years reporting on health and social services, Mahoning County government and Mahoning County courts.

When the Youngstown Press Club was re-established in 2018, he served on its board of governors. He has since assisted the club with communications, news releases and the media.

Milliken has established a journalism scholarship in his name at the Youngstown State University Foundation that promotes the future of professional journalism and is awarded annually to a junior or senior journalism major.