A Tribute Resolution Commending Professor Emeritus Frank Fee
for His Selfless Work Establishing Journalism History
as the Journal of the AEJMC History Division

Whereas Journalism History is the oldest peer-reviewed journal in the United States dedicated to the publication of high-quality original historical research on mass communication and media;

Whereas the History Division is one of the founding divisions of AEJMC;

Whereas members of the AEJMC History Division have published their scholarship in Journalism History across the 43 years of the journal’s existence;

Whereas Journalism History has been independently published by three universities and multiple professor-editors across its existence;

Whereas changes in the finances and work structures of higher education and academic publishing made the existing publication model for Journalism History unsustainable;

Whereas the Scripps School at Ohio University, the current publisher, and Professor Mike Sweeney, the current editor, of Journalism History have been excellent stewards of the journal and proposed in 2016 that the AEJMC History Division study whether to assume the journal;

Whereas Professor Frank Fee, a longtime and highly respected member of the AEJMC History Division and distinguished scholar of press history, served as the head of an ad hoc task force assigned to study the viability of and procedures for moving the journal to the ownership of the AEJMC History Division;

Whereas Professor Frank Fee has worked tirelessly, selflessly, and effectively during his retirement for three years to shepherd the process of the AEJMC History Division’s adoption of Journalism History as its journal;

Whereas the AEJMC History Division membership voted affirmatively to adopt Journalism History as the division’s journal in 2016;

Whereas Professor Frank Fee worked collaboratively with the AEJMC History Division leadership team and an ad hoc editor search team to solicit a call for a new journal editor and to select Greg Borchard as the journal’s incoming editor in 2018;

Whereas Journalism History will begin its existence as the journal of the AEJMC History Division beginning in Fall 2018, now, therefore, be it

Resolved, that the AEJMC History Division, on behalf of its members:

Acknowledges and celebrates the tireless, generous, effective leadership and commitment to service and the welfare of Division members demonstrated by Professor Frank Fee in his three year effort to shepherd Journalism History into its new status as the journal of the AEJMC History Division.

Mover: Kathy Roberts Forde, Former Chair of the History Division and Member of the Journalism History Ad Hoc Task Force

Seconder: Doug Cumming, Current Chair of the History Division

Approved unanimously: AEJMC History Division Business Meeting, Annual Conference, Washington D.C., Tuesday, August 7, 2018