Former Detroit News assistant managing editor inducted into Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame

Former Detroit News assistant managing editor Walter T. Middlebrook Jr. can add Hall of Famer to his list of honors.

Middlebrook, whose roles have included editor, recruiter and professor, was among six honorees who were inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame Sunday during a ceremony at the Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center in East Lansing.

“I'm just very grateful to the Hall of Fame committee,” Middlebrook told The News Sunday. “I'm very grateful to my Detroit and Michigan friends. I'm going to thank them all for accepting me and making me a part of their big picture here.”

Middlebrook retired from The News in 2018 after two stints at the paper. He is currently the Foster Professor of Practice at Penn State University.

In a biography by Michigan State University Journalism School Professor Joe Grimm, he called Middlebrook’s career one that “embodies the best traditions of journalism.”

“As a longtime editor at The Detroit News, he built a reputation for news judgment, fairness and integrity,” Grimm wrote. “As a newsroom leader, he guided coverage that earned not only numerous awards but improved the lives and well-being of the community.”

Middlebrook said he was humbled by the Hall of Fame honor.

“I was never expecting this to happen in my life,” he said. “And so I'm in shock to be honest with you.”

He noted that he’s always been behind the scenes.

“The people behind the scenes very seldom get recognized so I was not expecting anything like this,” he said.

Middlebrook, a native of Memphis, Tennessee, grew up in a working-class neighborhood. He initially attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to study chemistry, but later enrolled at Boston University to study journalism.

In addition to The News, Middlebrook worked for the New York Times and USA Today, the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch, the Minneapolis Star and Newsday/New York Newsday.

Among his roles as mentor and trainer include serving as director of recruiting for The Detroit News and Newsday and director of the Times Mirror METPRO/Editing program at the Maynard Institute.

“He is known as a champion of diversity has recognized nationally for identifying, recruiting and developing journalists, particularly people of color, women and others from populations historically underrepresented in newsrooms,” Grimm wrote.

Middlebrook is a former president of the Detroit chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists and regional director of the National Association of Black Journalists. He is a longtime member of the Rosa Parks Scholarship Foundation board and currently sits on the University of Michigan publications board.

The Detroit Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists honored Middlebrook with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018. He was recognized with a College of Communication Distinguished Alumni Award from Boston University in 2015 and the Spirit of Diversity Award from Wayne State University in 2010. 

Also inducted on Sunday was multimedia entertainment journalist Jim McFarlin, who was the first person of color to cover rock ’n’ roll for The Detroit News, according to his biography by Grimm.

McFarlin spent nearly a half-century in Michigan journalism and criticism, and was "one of the few African Americans in the nation to serve as lead television critic for a major daily newspaper, adding his unique cultural perspective to America’s predominant entertainment medium," Grimm wrote.

"McFarlin has written about everything from sports and politics to crime and colleges. Yet he is still best known for his time at The News, where he reviewed more than 100 concerts a year for 11 years –– longer than any of the paper’s previous rock critics –– and spent countless nights in Detroit’s nightclubs helping launch the careers of Motor City musicians."

The other 2023 Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame inductees are:

• Journalist and professor Dr. Lucinda D. Davenport, Ph.D.
• Lansing community broadcast journalist Sheri Jones
• Trailblazing journalist Luise Ruth Mahon Leismer
• Longtime Detroit Free Press journalist Patricia Montemurri