Ken Smikle, publisher of Target Market News for 30 years, was an NABJ giant. He believed in the untapped power and potential within the black community, and in our responsibility as black journalists to mine it, promote and propel it.

Ken dedicated his entire career to those principles, from his early work creating vehicles for disseminating news out of his native Harlem to his stewardship at storied publications like the Amsterdam News and Black Enterprise, to his 30-year crusade on that mission as publisher of Target Market News in his beloved Chicago.

Ken was always there when NABJ-Chicago called, and most recently, served this year as chair of our Media Advocacy Committee.

He was compassionate. He was brilliant. He was eloquent. He was strategic. And he and his wife Renee Ferguson were Chicago’s version of Journalism royalty. He and his wife Renee Ferguson loved us, and we loved them. Ken will be dearly, dearly missed.

— NABJ-Chicago Chapter Board of Directors

Read more about Ken Smikle in this recent article in the Chicago Sun-Times and read his bio as the Media Advocacy Committee chair here.