PHILADELPHIA -- Jim Wooten, veteran ABC News foreign correspondent, has been named winner of the 2001 John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism.

The award, which carries a $25,000 honorarium, is presented annually to an individual whose work best exemplifies the journalistic standard of excellence set by NBC news correspondent and anchor John Chancellor. Chancellor was host of the "Today" show and anchored NBC's "Nightly News" during a career that spanned 43 years with the network.

The John Chancellor Award is endowed by businessman Ira A. Lipman and administered by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. As a 16-year-old high school senior, Lipman was a "reliable source" for Chancellor when he filed reports about the Little Rock Central High School desegregation story for NBC. Lipman, a member of the Board of Overseers of Penn's Wharton School, is chairman and president of Guardsmark Inc.

The award will be presented to Wooten Nov. 12 at a black-tie dinner at The Pierre hotel in New York.

"Jim Wooten is a hero and inspiration to generations of television journalists. I am very pleased that he will receive the award named for my hero, John Chancellor," Lipman said.

Since joining ABC News in 1979, Wooten has held a number of roles at the network and filed stories from 40 countries and five continents. Currently ABC News senior correspondent based in Washington DC, Wooten contributes reports to "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings," "Nightline," "Good Morning America" and other ABC News programs.

Previous Chancellor award winners are pioneering Mississippi journalist Bill Minor of The Times-Picayune (New Orleans), John Kifner of The New York Times, PBS journalist and commentator Paul Duke and civil-rights reporters John Herbers of The New York Times and Claude Sitton of The Raleigh News.