Press Gazette honours journalists with Hall of Fame exhibition

The Hall of Fame is part of a photographic exhibition and gala event being held tonight at London's National Portrait Gallery to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the journalists' trade paper, the Press Gazette.

Journalists from the past and present have been invited to attend the exhibition of the 40 being honoured, which were chosen by a panel of former and present newspaper editors including: Sir Harold Evans, editor of the Sunday Times from 1967-1981; Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian; and Paul Dacre, editor of The Daily Mail.

The judges were looking for names that had a "profound influence" on generations of journalists and succeeded in informing entertaining and provoking readers across the country.

The judges chose the 40 names from a list of 150 to come up with the members that would feature in the Hall of Fame. Among those on the list include 14 editors, one photographer and five women.

The youngest member on the list is Matt Pritchett, aged 41, who is a pocket cartoonist for The Daily Telegraph, and is one of three cartoonists on the list, along with the late Carl Giles of the Express and the Sunday Times's Gerald Scarfe.

Some 15 of the names are still working in newspapers today, including Daily Mail columnists Keith Waterhouse and Ian Wooldridge, and The Sun's political editor Trevor Kavanagh.

Ian Reeves, editor of Press Gazette, said: "What distinguishes the names that make up the Press Gazette Newspaper Hall of Fame from their contemporaries is that these are journalists who have produced work of an extraordinary standard, year after year, in the most competitive industry in the world."

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