The Paul Colford Papers
The Briscoe Center has acquired the papers of reporter and columnist Paul Colford. Colford’s career in journalism began in 1975 in New Jersey. He went on to report for New York Newsday and the New York Daily News, finishing his career as vice president for media relations at the Associated Press. He has also written extensive biographies of Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern.
“I’m grateful to Paul for choosing the Briscoe Center as the home of his papers,” said Don Carleton, executive director of the Briscoe Center. “The collection represents a sharp experienced understanding of the news media from a person who worked as both a journalist and as a spokesperson who dealt with journalists.”
Colford’s papers include audiotapes, videos, photographs, press releases, newspaper clippings, and other materials that were gathered over the course of his career as a journalist. Much of his reporting focused on the media, including radio, the publishing industry and the rise of the Internet. The papers also include considerable research materials on the subjects of his biographies, Rush Limbaugh (1993) and Howard Stern (1996).
“As a media columnist and biographer, I’ve often found gold and indispensable details in libraries and archives around the country, including the Briscoe Center,” said Colford. “I’m honored and thrilled to know my files, photos, clippings, and other documents will be preserved and made available before long to media historians, students, and other journalists for their work in years to come.”
The Briscoe Center’s news media holdings include the papers of New York newspapermen Jack Newfield and Wayne Barrett, as well as those of social columnists Walter Winchell and Liz Smith, the clipping morgues of the New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune, and the archives of many television news producers and reporters.
