Press reporter named to Hall of Fame

Ozaukee Press reporter Kristyn Halbig Ziehm was one of seven journalists inducted into the Milwaukee Press Club Media Hall of Fame during a ceremony at the Saint Kate hotel in Milwaukee on Friday.

Halbig Ziehm was honored for her 43-year career in journalism — the entirety of which she has spent at the Port Washington newspaper — and a body of work that has garnered awards for everything from news and in-depth reporting to business and feature writing from both the Wisconsin Newspaper Association and National Newspaper Association. 

The Ozaukee Press’ long time Port Washington City Hall reporter, Halbig Ziehm joined the paper as a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire on Feb. 8, 1982, and since then has reported on issues that have ranged from local politics to, most recently, the development of the Vantage data center complex.

“Kris has earned her place beside the outstanding daily newspaper and television journalists in the Milwaukee Press Club Hall of Fame with a career at Ozaukee Press that began as a new college graduate fresh from journalism school and has seen her polish the craft of newspaper reporting and news writing to the highest standards,” Ozaukee Press publisher Bill Schanen III said.

“As our Port Washington beat reporter, Kris has covered some of the most significant news events in the city’s modern history, a role she continues to shine in today with intelligent, in-depth reporting that Press readers and news sources alike trust to be accurate and fair,” he added. “The Hall of Fame honor recognizes that she represents the quintessential newspaper journalist — dedicated to the simple but difficult-to-achieve imperative to find and report the truth.”

Ozaukee Press editor Bill Schanen IV said Halbig Ziehm epitomizes the very best of community journalism.

“Kris lives in Port. She understands Port and, like our newspaper, is committed to providing the residents of the city and all of Ozaukee County the fair and accurate news coverage they need to be informed and engaged citizens,” he said. “Not all of the people Kris reports on relish being the subjects of her stories, but the vast majority of them respect her reporting as fair and impeccably accurate.

“There is no higher praise for a journalist.”

Halbig Ziehm was nominated for the honor by former Milwaukee Press Club president Mark Zoromski, who as a longtime Ozaukee Press reader has followed her career.

“Kris is somewhat of an institution in Ozaukee County,” Zoromski wrote in his nomination letter. “She is respected by public officials and ordinary citizens as tough but fair, detailed, prolific and accurate. It seems she knows everyone and everyone knows her.

“Her reporting at the local level for 43 years holding the powerful accountable and giving voice to the voiceless is journalism at its finest.”

During her acceptance speech, Halbig Ziehm credited her parents with inspiring her love for journalism by stressing the importance of news, particularly local news, and said that at Ozaukee Press she found the job she always wanted.

“Working for a small-town newspaper was always my dream, and I ended up at a great one — Ozaukee Press,” she said. “Community journalism is important, and it’s what I’ve always wanted to do. We’re the closest to our readers, and we cover the mundane to the magnificent.”

Halbig Ziehm joins Ozaukee Press founders William F. Schanen Jr. and Marie Jacque Schanen, as well as longtime Press photographer Vern Arendt, in the Milwaukee Press Club Media Hall of Fame.

Also inducted into  the Hall of Fame on Friday were Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters Tom Heinen, Tannette Johnson-Elie and Lori Nickel, CBS 58 anchor Mike Strehlow, Associated Press photographer Morry Gash and the late Sean O’Flaherty, a longtime TMJ4 journalist.

Presenting the awards at the 44th Media Hall of Fame Dinner were Tom Daykin, president of the Milwaukee Press Club and a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter, and CBS 58 News Director Jessie Garcia.