The Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame announced Wednesday that 11 journalists will be inducted in its 2025 class: Cynthia Canty, Alex Cruden, Kirthmon F. Dozier, John Flesher, Cindy Goodaker, Daymon J. Hartley, Dorothy Jurney, Keith Owens, Pat Rencher, Jam Sardar and David Zeman.
Five of the eleven ― Cruden, Dozier, Hartley, Owens and Zeman ― are Free Press alumni.
Alex Cruden, Mar.3, 2005 SUSAN TUSA/Detroit Free Press
Alex Cruden started at the Free Press in 1973 and spent 35 years as an editor and manager. While at the Free Press, he played an integral role in perfecting and polishing the newspaper’s marquee journalism and maintained an online stylebook called the Bugle, which handled copyediting style questions and was used by other publications. Since leaving the Free Press, he has written case studies, taught public affairs reporting at Wayne State University, and led workshops and seminars for news media companies and writing and editing organizations across the U.S.
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Kirt Dozier walks off the filed after Lions game in 2015.
Kirthmon F. Dozier was best known for his keen eye and sports photography. He started at the Free Press in 1995 and spent almost 30 years as a photojournalist. He was behind the camera for the Detroit Pistons championship, the Red Wings’ Stanley Cup and even Miguel Cabrera’s final day as a Tiger. Dozier died in January 2024 at 65 after a brief illness.
Civil rights activist Rosa Parks, carries a sign protesting cutbacks at General Motors and is followed by Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Detroit, in a picket line in front of General Motors headquarters in 1986.
Daymon J. Hartley is known for his social-issue capturing lens. As a Free Press staff photographer from 1983 to July 1995, he shot everything from breaking news and crime stories to overseas combat stories in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Palestine, and Israel. He was nominated for five Pulitzer Prizes, and was twice named a finalist. In 1990, he was named the Michigan Press Photographer of the Year. He has since worked as a freelance photographer.
Keith Owens in the Detroit Free Press photo studio in downtown Detroit on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023.
Keith Owens wrote for the Free Press editorial page from 1993-2000. Owens served as the editor of the Michigan Chronical from 2003-2006 and 2015-2018. Owen’s co-founded Detroit Stories Quarterly and the We Are Speaking Substack newsletter and podcast. In 2023, he returned to the Free Press editorial page as a freelance contributing columnist.
David Zeman of the Detroit Free Press. Picture taken April 21,2009. MARY SCHROEDER/Detroit Free Press headshot mugshot
David Zeman spent 20 years as an investigative reporter and editor at the Detroit Free Press. He was the editor of Jim Schaefer and M.L. Elrick’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Zeman served as senior editor of Bridge Michigan from 2013-2024.
The 2025 Hall of Fame class will be honored at the Kellogg Center in East Lansing on April 13, the Hall of Fame said in a news release, to recognize their “extraordinary and clearly outstanding careers” that have advanced the legacy of a free and responsible press and elevated Michigan journalism.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame class of 2025 Freep inductees
