Hearst’s Dixon tapped for professional honor
To enter state Journalism Hall of Fame
Hearst Connecticut Media political editor, reporter and columnist Ken Dixon will be inducted into the Connecticut Journalism Hall of Fame later this month, a recognition of his career as an intrepid journalist spanning more than four decades.
The Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists will induct Dixon and now-retired 96.5 WTIC morning news anchor John Elliott at its annual dinner on May 23.
"For decades, Ken Dixon has covered the biggest politics and government stories in Connecticut, as the people's representative holding the powerful accountable,” said Matt DeRienzo, vice president of news and digital content for Hearst Connecticut Media.
Dixon began his career at the Bridgeport Post and Telegram newspapers in July 1977, after a short stint as the farm editor of a centralOhio daily where he worked after graduating from Ohio University’s journalism program in 1976.
“The only thing I ever wanted to be was a columnist. I wanted to be Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill,” Dixon said. “I was a history major and then I found out I could piss people off by writing op-eds in the college newspaper.”
From there, Dixon returned to his native Connecticut to cover Westport and Norwalk before moving to Bridgeport City Hall in 1983. He became a full-time columnist for the Connecticut Post in 1990, and was sent to the Connecticut State Capitol in 1994 where he became a oneperson state Capitol bureau for the Connecticut Post and other Hearst papers as they were acquired.
In 2018 he took on the role of a player-coach — mentoring the newest additions to Hearst’s state politics team while continuing in his own unflagging coverage of Connecticut politics, public policy, the legislature and state departments. He continues to write a weekly column that runs on Sundays in Hearst papers.
“In 2018, Ken Dixon clawed back the mountain of newspapers, daily bulletins, legislative guides, press releases, media badges, notebooks and the forest of succulents that mark his press room empire to clean off a desk for me,” recalled Hearst Capitol Reporter Emilie Munson.
“In those first days after I arrived at the Capitol, Ken introduced me to every lawmaker, lobbyist and staffer he could. He got me a Capitol badge. He taught me which committees were important and which could be ignored. He explained how a bill becomes a law ... Ken is a compassionate and insightful reporter, an unmatched columnist and a selfless colleague. I am so grateful every day to work with him and learn from him.”
Dixon has won state, regional and national awards for reporting and column-writing and he was recently a National Press Foundation fellow. He has won three awards from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.
In his spare time, Dixon plays soccer in leagues and clubs and he plays the electric mandolin and guitar. Dixon is part of a journalists’ bar band, The Bad Slugs, and wrote an iconic tune about working in newspapers: “Ride the Dinosaur.”