Business News Luminaries

Business Journalist of the Century

View a Short Video on Barney Kilgore, Business Journalist of the Century

Top honors were given to Bernard Kilgore, the legendary editor of The Wall Street Journal who revolutionized the industry by redefining business news coverage to include politics, culture and other societal segments. Mr. Kilgore was named Business Journalist of the Century and accepting the honor on his behalf was his son, Jim, publisher of the Princeton Packet, which Bernard Kilgore purchased in 1955. "Barney saw what the Journal was and what it could be," said Jim Kilgore in his acceptance speech. "His was a vision of a national business daily, published and delivered to America's doorstep in an attractive, simple, easy to read format."

The Kilgore children, John, Kathryn and James

When Barney Kilgore took over as president of Dow Jones & Company in 1945, circulation of the Journal stood at 33,000 and the company's profits were $211,000. By 1966, the paper's circulation had skyrocketed to more than 1 million while profits had risen to $13 million.

Barney Kilgore, Jim said, not only had great vision but the leadership to carry out his ideas. "He would plant his ideas and rarely take credit for them. He wanted others to run with a project, en editorial idea or whatever and praised them for their success."

Peter Kann, chairman and CEO of Dow Jones & Company, has referred to Mr. Kilgore as the "architect" of the modern Wall Street Journal.

"What Barney Kilgore had was the vision of connecting the business community across this very large country with the same news on the same day for the businessperson in Portland, Oregon, and the businessperson in Portland, Maine."

As part of the Kilgore family's tribute, a 16-page special issue was given to all dinner attendees. The supplement, which included articles, text of a speech given by Barney Kilgore and family photographs, was also distributed as part of The Princeton Packet the week following the dinner.

During the dinner, the family also announced the formation of The Bernard Kilgore Scholarship Fund, for which the family and The Princeton Packet pledged an initial $100,000. The fund will be administered by the New Jersey Press Foundation and was established to support college-bound New Jersey students interested in a career in journalism.

Contributions can be made in care of the New Jersey Press Foundation, 840 Bear Tavern Road, Suite 305, West Trenton, N.J. 08628.

For more information on Barney Kilgore, click here.

Barney Kilgore's eldest son, Jim.

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