Nevada Press Association The best in Nevada journalism since 1924
Five journalists who collectively span three centuries and the 450 miles between Las Vegas and Reno-Tahoe, were inducted into the Nevada Newspaper Hall of Fame today. Nellie Mighels Davis, Don Digilio, Dennis Myers, Cory Farley and Thomas Mitchell are the latest journalists to join Silver State giants like Mark Twain, Hank Greenspun and Mike O’Callaghan in the distinguished group.
They were approved for induction earlier this month by the Nevada Press Association Board of Directors.
Nellie Mighels Davis’ family owned Carson City’s Nevada Daily Appeal for almost 70 years, selling it only when she died in 1945 at the age of 101. She was the first woman to cover the Nevada Legislature, in 1877 and 1879, and was also the first woman ever to report on a prize fight, in 1897. (More on Mighels Davis.)
Don Digilio was employed at the Las Vegas Review-Journal for more than 20 years, working his way up from reporter and columnist to become the paper’s top editor in 1969. He is said to have returned stability to the Review-Journal newsroom during his tenure as editor. After leaving the Review-Journal in 1980, he resurrected his newspaper column in both the Valley Times and the Las Vegas Sun. (More on Digilio.)
Cory Farley’s easygoing, comfortable prose established him as one of the Reno Evening Gazette’s top news feature writers, and his subsequent left-of-center column writing made him one of the most-read writers Nevada journalism has ever produced. His column had been published more or less continuously, sometimes weekly, sometimes weekdays and Sundays, usually three or four a week, for 26 years, until he retired in 2007. (More on Farley.)
Thomas Mitchell was the newsroom leader of the Las Vegas Review-Journal for two decades. He did as much as any other journalist in the history of the state to defend and expand public access to government records. When he left the Review-Journal in 2010, he joined Battle Born Media as a freelancer. Until recently, Mitchell wrote most of the editorials and a regular column for the company’s mostly rural newspapers. (More on Mitchell.)
Dennis Myers reported for a number of news outlets throughout the state, devoting the last 15+ years of his professional life to the alternative weekly Reno News & Review, where he became an award-winning reporter and news editor. A champion of progressive values, Myers briefly left journalism in 1987-88 when Secretary of State Frankie Sue Del Papa appointed him as her chief deputy. He died last summer at the age of 70. (More on Myers.)
The Nevada Newspaper Hall of Fame is based in the Nevada Press Association headquarters building in downtown Carson City.