Madison Historical Society Presents - Mark Di Ionno - "The Last Newspaperman" - September 19, 2017

Madison Historical Society presents Mark Di Ionno: "The Last Newspaperman and the Rise of Celebrity Journalism”

MADISON – On Tuesday, September 19th, Mark Di Ionno will speak at the Madison Historical Society on “The Last Newspaperman and the Rise of Celebrity Journalism”. Di Ionno’s presentation will take place in the Chase Room of the Madison Public Library beginning at 7:15 PM. Light refreshments will be available from 7:00. The presentation is open to the public, and there is no admission charge.

“This will be our first presentation in the Society’s 2017 – 2018 program year,” stated society vice president and programs chair, Jim Malcolm. “Our speaker is a columnist at The Star-Ledger, New Jersey’s largest newspaper. He has won the New Jersey Press Association’s first-place award for column writing four of the last five years and in 2013 was a Pulitzer Prize finalist primarily for his work on Hurricane Sandy. His presentation is based on his first novel, The Last Newspaperman. In fictional form, Di Ionno explores the roots of tabloid journalism and the rise of celebrity media.”

Mark Di Ionno got his start in newspaper as a Navy journalist and has been a reporter, editor, and columnist his entire adult life. Prior to writing for The Star-Ledger, he was a sports columnist at the New York Post. He is an adjunct professor of journalism at Rutgers-Newark, his alma mater, and has written three award-winning books on New Jersey history and culture. His second novel, Gods of Wood and Stone, will be published next summer by Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

The Di Ionno name is very familiar in Madison. Mark’s father, Tony, taught here for more than 30 years, and his children, Anthony and Michelle, graduated from Madison High, as did two of his cousin’s children, Kat and Dante, who both played on the two most recent state championship football teams.

The Madison Historical Society’s role is to assemble, record, and preserve all matters of historical interest concerning Madison and its residents. Formed in 1922 to preserve the old Bottle Hill Tavern, the Society has organized a significant collection of historic documents, maps and photographs over the intervening years. These are housed at the Local History Center at the Madison Public Library. For more information about the Society or to inquire about membership, call 973-377-0722, ext 8 or visit the Society’s website at www.madisonhistoricalsociety.org.