Since its founding in 1928, the Interstate Advertising Managers’ Association (IAMA) contributed over $100,000 in scholarship funds to college or university students. Later, the Pennsylvania Advertising Managers’ Association (PAMA) carried on the tradition of awarding scholarships to students at Pennsylvania colleges or universities majoring in advertising, more recently renaming the scholarship to the John G. Leeser, Jr. Scholarship, for his dedication to the organization and the sales profession.
Beginning in 2025, the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association Foundation (PNAF) is proud to continue with this time-honored tradition and will recognize two Pennsylvania college or university students majoring in advertising or any related major (i.e. journalism, communications, marketing, digital sales, social media) with the John G. Leeser, Jr. Scholarship. Each award will be $1,500.
Applications for the John G. Leeser, Jr. Scholarship will be accepted through May 30, 2025.
Scholarship recipients will be selected by a selection committee and announced by early July. Scholars will be honored and awarded during an awards luncheon in conjunction with the annual PNA Advertising Conference, this year on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025, in State College.
In June 2024, John G. Leeser Jr. was named publisher of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette community newspaper, SunGazette.com, the East Lycoming Shopper and The Luminary. Prior to that, he was the advertising sales manager at the Sun-Gazette since 2001.
He has been active in various state newspaper and sales professional organizations, including the Interstate Advertising Managers’ Association (IAMA), where he has held numerous board positions including president and treasurer, and at the Pennsylvania Newsmedia Association (PNA), where he served as a member of the advertising sales conference planning committee.
He was recently honored by the Pennsylvania Advertising Managers’ Association (PAMA), formerly IAMA, for his dedication to the organization and the sales profession, with an annual scholarship to be given in his name to a Pennsylvania student in the field of advertising and marketing.
His newspaper advertising sales career began in 1984 at the then Milton Standard and Lewisburg Journal, now the Standard-Journal in Milton. He was responsible for sales in lower Northumberland County and all of Snyder County. In 1986, he took on a larger sales territory at the Daily Item in Sunbury. There he had several promotions, including co-op coordinator and assistant retail advertising manager.
