Jan Tuckwood
ARNOLD ROSENFELD EDITOR OF THE YEAR AWARD
Palm Beach Post

In both style and substance, Jan Tuckwood is the heart of her community and her newspaper.

She has infused the Palm Beach Post with creative energy, aesthetic quality and a strong community connection. As a result, the judges have made her the first recipient of the Arnold Rosenfeld Editor of the Year Award. It honors the distinguished journalist who was senior vice president and editor in chief of Cox Newspapers from 1989 to 2000. He is retired and living in Atlanta.

The Rosenfeld award "was a big surprise for me because my colleagues nominated me but didn't tell me," Tuckwood recalled. "I was totally shocked and very honored."

A special quality of Tuckwood's work is her knowledge of and appreciation for her community. She graduated from the local Lake Worth High School in a city she still calls home with her husband, staff artist Pat Crowley, and their four daughters ages 21 to 10 — Meghan, Jillian, Kate and Tess.

Tuckwood is responsible for the look of the whole newspaper and supervises the features sections plus the graphics and arts departments. She manages all that while raising four daughters. Where does her energy come from?

"If you have enthusiasm you have energy," she said. "Every day, I'm excited about the stories that I'm going to put in the paper that day."

During 2000 The Post's associate editor:

  • Helped it maintain continuity throughout the presidential vote count controversy, and afterwards managed the retrospective entitled, "37 Days that Changed History."

  • Led the Post's three-day project on endangered Lake Okeechobee.

  • Re-designed Opinion and Inside Business.

  • Guided the serialization of Columnist Frank Cerabino's humorous novel, "Shady Palms," about South Florida condo life.

  • Edited the 240-page hardcover book entitled, "Our Century," celebrating the millennium in Palm Beach.

In 1995 Tuckwood proposed creating a holiday fund and calling it "Season to Share." This yearly feature allows the newspaper not only to meet the needs of the families featured, but also to give the remainder of the donations to family charities. Season to Share is a charitable foundation with $535,000 in contributions.

"I can think of no better way to honor Arnold Rosenfeld, nor to set the standards any higher, than to name Jan as the first recipient," said Editor Edward Sears.

"Jan asks three questions," said Managing Editor John Bartosek. "Is it interesting? How can we show it? How can we make it more interesting? She doesn't abide boring. That's why she's the best editor I know."