On the same day that the LA Press Club announced the nominees for its fifth annual National Entertainment Journalism Awards taking place November 18 at the Biltmore Hotel, Nikki Finke explained why she and her Deadline.com team chose to boycott this year’s event. At the beginning of her post, Finke writes:

In my opinion, the LA Press Club seems more interested in collecting entry fees and selling gala tables to its entertainment awards contest than in rewarding high standards of journalism or conducting a competition with integrity. Tabloid media outlets which engage in ‘checkbook journalism’ are allowed to enter and in fact won NEJ categories last year.

Finke goes on to make a couple of valid points. Although the NEJ Awards have the word “National” in the title, this work-in-progress is still – perhaps inevitably – very much a SoCal-centric affair. Today’s list of nominees includes only a handful of non-LA outlets, most notably People magazine and Bloomberg Businessweek. Also, as Finke suggests, the NEJ Awards would benefit from a more transparent explanation of how the first place winners are chosen.

In response to a query from FishbowlLA, LA Press Club executive director Diana Ljungaeus and president Will Lewis have provided the following joint statement of response to Finke’s post:

Unlike Deadline.com, the Los Angeles Press Club is a non-profit organization (that barely breaks even!) not only dedicated to quality journalism but also here to support and bolster the morale of journalists.

Despite Nikki Finke’s attack on the integrity of the LA Press Club’s National Entertainment Journalism Awards, the 2012 NEJ’s attracted a record of close to 300 entries, from more than 45 news organizations across the nation. This is reflected in the affiliations of the finalists.

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One year after Hugh Hefner was born in 1926, the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles was the site of a luncheon at which the Academy Awards were hatched. Given Hefner’s love of movies and ongoing screening of old classics at the Mansion, it seems appropriate that this is where he will accept the LA Press Club’s Lifetime Achievement Award on November 17. The hotel has also been used as a filming location for everything from Chinatown to Bugsy.

Even better, there will be a one-on-one interview conducted with Hefner at the 4th Annual National Entertainment Journalism Awards. At present, the LA Press Club has not yet decided who will get to moderate the Q&A.

Hefner’s illustrious lifetime arguably pivoted on the lack of a raise from Esquire magazine. Back in 1952, he was working for the publication as a copywriter and moved on to the founding of Playboy magazine when the publication turned down his request for a modest pay increase.

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The LA Press Club had their annual elections and chose new board members. Now scan for names of people you know…go on…that’s why we’re all here:

The Board of Directors for the Los Angeles Press Club (LAPC) is comprised of 14 Board Members that serve two-year terms. Every year, half of the seats are up for election and this year brought in some new and old faces. Day-to-day operations are still run by working international journalist and LAPC Executive Director, Diana Ljungaeus, and USA reporter, Chris Woodyard is the President of its Board of Directors.

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