As part of the annual holiday party, the Deadline Club confirmed its 2025 Board of Governors, headlined by the election of Nick Hirshon as President. A staunch supporter of student journalists, Hirshon is an associate professor of communications at William Paterson University. There, he serves as advisor for the university’s SPJ student chapter, named national campus chapter of the year in 2020 and 2023. Hirshon himself earned recognition as national campus chapter advisor of the year in 2019 and 2021, the only two-time recipient of the honor.
Hirshon was formerly a reporter for the New York Daily News, and he holds a master’s degree from the Columbia Journalism School and a Ph.D. from Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. He also taught at the City University of New York, St. John’s University, and the Columbia Journalism School. He spent the past year as the club’s vice president of student affairs.
Hirshon’s election was met with praise from those throughout the William Paterson and SPJ communities. Read on for excerpts from articles published by the news department at William Paterson University (link here), as well as in the university’s official student-run newspaper, The Beacon, by Susmita Majumder (link here).
Society of Professional Journalists’ New York City Chapter Elects William Paterson University Professor as President
The Deadline Club, the New York City chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), has elected William Paterson University professor Nicholas Hirshon as its president for 2025, the group’s centennial year. Hirshon assumes this key role leading the nation’s largest SPJ chapter as the Club commemorates a century of championing journalistic excellence and freedom of the press.
Hirshon is only the second professor elected to this role, among the most prestigious leadership positions in journalism. He joins a list of distinguished Deadline Club presidents who were critical figures in journalism history, including Roy W. Howard, a co-founder of the Scripps Howard newspaper chain; Bernard Kilgore, a longtime managing editor of the Wall Street Journal, and Myron Kandel, the founding financial editor for CNN.
The Deadline Club is SPJ’s largest chapter, with almost 400 members.
“I’m honored to lead the Deadline Club in this milestone year and in this critical moment in the history of American journalism,” Hirshon says.
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“Nick Hirshon has distinguished himself as a breaking news reporter and journalism educator in the toughest market in the world,” says Steve Dunlop, a longtime CBS News correspondent and past Deadline Club president. “His background, his energy, and his people skills promise to make Nick an outstanding leader of our organization.”
WP Professor Elected President of New York Journalism Group
Bijan Pulley called him “a great leader.” Alexander Felix described him as “a mentor in every sense of the word.” Rochelle Estrada said he was “an essential part of my success.”
These students traveled to Midtown Manhattan on Thursday, Dec. 12, to watch the Deadline Club, the nation’s largest chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, elect Dr. Nick Hirshon, an associate professor in the Communication Department, as its next president.
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“Dr. Hirshon is incredibly deserving of this position,” said Estrada ’24, MS ’25. “He has worked extremely hard to provide opportunities for students as the vice president, and I know he will continue dedicating himself to spreading freedom of the press and to maintain the field of journalism for other students to become future reporters.”
Freshman Julia Menn, an international student from Germany, recalled how Hirshon cofounded a nonprofit this fall that allowed her and Felix to report live from the White House on Election Day.
“Dr. Hirshon is not just a talker,” Menn said. “If he says he is going to move mountains, you’ll probably find him halfway through with a shovel in hand.”
