EIU honors Daily Herald newsroom chief Doubek

Daily Herald managing editor Madeleine Doubek will be honored tonight as Journalist of the Year by Eastern Illinois University.

The university's Department of Journalism bestows the honor to an "outstanding journalist in the Eastern Illinois University service region who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of journalism."

Recipients need not be Eastern Illinois graduates, but Doubek happens to be, having earned a journalism degree in 1985.

Doubek joined the Daily Herald as a reporter that same year. She first covered police news and then the city of Des Plaines before heading up the newspaper's political coverage for a decade. She later became projects editor and has directed such award-winning efforts as the "Suburban Mosaic" series, which traced immigrants' paths from various nations to Chicago's suburbs.

"I'm proud of all the projects we've done, of course, but I'm particularly proud of the series we did on chronic drunken drivers and our series on growing drug use among young people in our communities, because I believe we really made a difference with those in pointing out a problem and helping direct all of us toward fixing the problem," she said.

Doubek, a Des Plaines resident, was named deputy managing editor in 2003 and managing editor in July 2007.

Daily Herald editor John Lampinen said of Doubek's latest honor: "We're very proud of Madeleine. Her outstanding journalistic skills, her genuine concern about people and her devotion to helping inform and improve the community are assets she uses every day to lead and inspire our newsroom. I think Eastern made an excellent selection."

So does John David Reed, the recently retired long-time director of student publications at Eastern.

Reed recalled Doubek the student journalist as a "really bright, personable individual who went into journalism for all the right reasons. She was a terrific college journalist and it was obvious she would become a great professional journalist. And she has. We couldn't be prouder of her."

Doubek -- the first woman to receive this award -- will be honored at a banquet in Charleston this evening.

She said the honor is even more meaningful coming, as it does, from her alma mater.

"Without question," she said, "in the sense that the Eastern Journalism Department -- and the Daily Eastern News -- was and always will be a sort of home to me. To have that sort of validation from the people who raised you means everything."

Previous winners include Jeff Nelson, retired managing editor of the Lincoln Courier; Cam Simpson, a former Chicago Tribune reporter; and John Foreman, publisher of the News-Gazette in Champaign-Urbana.