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Monday January 24, 2011
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Monday January 24, 2011
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Four McClatchy newspapers brought home nine Green Eyeshade Awards in the prestigious annual competition that recognizes journalism excellence in 11 Southern states.
The State in Columbia, S.C., and The Miami Herald each won first-place prizes for signature journalism efforts published in 2009.The State newspaper staffers won for their breaking-news coverage of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's return from a secret trip to Argentina and his disclosure of an extramarital affair.The first-place prize, presented Sept. 11 at the 60th Green Eyeshade Awards banquet at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Ga., was accepted by Leroy Chapman Jr., editor of The State's government and political writing group.The Miami Herald won first place for specialized reporting online for its two-part, multimedia project called After Guantánamo," which featured interactive maps and a slide show in exploring issues surrounding the potential closure of the prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.The award was one of five won by The Miami Herald. The paper won another first-place prize in the print criticism category for the work of TV critic Glenn Garvin. The paper picked up two second-place prizes, one for a sports photograph by Al Diaz and another for non-deadline reporting, and earned a third-place finish in the enterprise business reporting category.Newspapers in 11 states -– Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia –- enter the Green Eyeshade competition, conducted by the Southeastern Region of the Society of Professional Journalists.Other McClatchy winners were:** The Charlotte Observer, which won a second-place prize for non-deadline reporting for the story "Who in the World is Delmar?" by Elizabeth Leland and a third-place prize for editorials for a collection of columns by associate editor Mary Newsom.** The Lexington Herald-Leader, second place for public service in daily reporting for "It's Your Money," the paper's investigation of four government and quasi-governmental agencies in Kentucky that revealed massive abuses of power and spending and resulted in multiple resignations, dismissals and policy reforms.The Kansas City Star, The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer have each won national honors from the Association of Food Journalists' 2010 awards competition.
The awards were announced Sept. 2 in Santa Fe, N.M., during AFJ's annual convention. They recognize excellence in reporting and writing, newspaper food section design and content, food illustration and food photography.Jill Wendholdt Silva, The Kansas City Star's food editor and restaurant critic, won first place for Best Newspaper Food Feature among publications with greater than 200,001 circulation. Her winning submission "Outstanding in the Field" was originally published last summer in The Kansas City Sunday Star Magazine. Silva profiled locavore chef Jonathan Justus who spent weeks planning an exhaustive and nerve-racking seven-course, farm-to-table dinner at Powell Gardens, a private, nonprofit botanical garden just east of Kansas City.The judges wrote: "A fascinating look at the nerves and sweat required to stage a trendy, foodie phenomenon. A thoroughly researched piece and a sharply observed, well-written profile."The first-place prize was among three awards won by The Kansas City Star, more than any other food media. The paper won third place for Best Newspaper Special Food Project for the Food section's Thanksgiving collaboration with the House & Home section."Each Thanksgiving we choose a theme and produce two related sections to plan the holiday," Silva explained in an e-mail. "In 2009, we had a sustainable, earth-friendly Thanksgiving theme. Other staff members contributing to this project included House & Home editor Jocelyn Jacobson, staff writer Stacy Downs and photographer Tammy Ljungblad. All recipes are tested and the photos are meticulously styled in the studio for a magazine-style presentation."The judges wrote: "Bringing food sections well into 21st century interests by updating the classic Thanksgiving Day menu through investment in earth-friendly dishes is a valuable approach undertaken by this newspaper staff. It teaches home cooks the value of using locally grown and seasonal crops. In all, it's a great lesson in economy and eco-friendly knowledge."The Kansas City Star completed its winnings with a third-place prize for Best Newspaper Food Coverage among newspapers with more than 250,001 circulation.The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., and food writer Andrea Weigl won two third-place prizes: Best Newspaper Food Coverage among newspapers with 150,000 circulation or less and Best Newspaper Food Feature for publications under 200,000 circulation.The Charlotte Observer and food editor Kathleen Purvis won second place for Best Newspaper Food Feature in the over-200,001 circulation category.The Charlotte Observer, The News & Observer and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram features sections have each been named among the country's 15 best by the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors. This is the fourth straight year The Charlotte Observer has been selected.
The Top 15 Best Section awards were announced earlier this summer, and the winners will be honored Oct. 8 during AASFE’s national conference at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla.AASFE honors sections that present lifestyle and arts and entertainment coverage with authority, utility, energy and wit. Judges look for local content, service to readers and presentation.The features sections of The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer were merged a couple of years ago and work collaboratively. Charlotte features editor Michael Weinstein and Raleigh features editor Debra Boyette both report to News & Observer vice president Felicia Gressette.Catherine Mallette is the assistant managing editor for features at the Star-Telegram; Celeste Williams is the managing editor for sports and features.Judges comments about The Charlotte Observer:The Merced Sun-Star and The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., were honored Aug. 25 with national awards for their First Amendment reporting by the Associated Press Managing Editors.
APME, an association of editors at the Associated Press’ 1,500 member newspapers in the United States, sponsors the prestigious annual competition recognizing journalism excellence in six categories.The Merced Sun-Star won a First Amendment award for stories by reporter Jonah Owen Lamb exposing, through open records requests, racist e-mails sent by a local city councilman to friends.The News & Observer also won a First Amendment award for a three-part series revealing that North Carolina has one of the nation's most secretive laws regarding the release of personnel information for public employees.The News & Observer and the Merced Sun-Star were the only McClatchy papers to win awards in the 2010 competition. The awards will be presented at APME's annual conference Oct. 20-22 at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla.The complete list of 2010 winners is available at the APME website.Former Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette reporter Renee Dudley has won the 2010 Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award, presented annually by the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Foundation, for coverage while at the Packet and Gazette last year.
Judges chose Dudley "for her dedicated work upholding First Amendment rights," citing her months-long efforts to obtain records on ambulance runs by Beaufort County, South Carolina, paramedics.Dudley asked for the response-time records after reporting on several EMS cases in which patients died or nearly died. County officials balked, but Dudley's coverage ultimately led to enactment of a state law that unequivocally declares that EMS records are accessible to the public so long as information identifying patients is not disclosed.Dudley, who joined The Post and Courier newspaper in Charleston, S.C., earlier this year, will receive a $10,000 prize and will be honored Oct. 5 at SPJ's national convention in Las Vegas.The national award is named in memory of Eugene S. Pulliam, a former publisher of The Indianapolis Star and The Indianapolis News.Macon (Ga.) Telegraph columnist Ed Grisamore has been named the winner of the 2010 Will Rogers Humanitarian Award.
The national award, named for the humorist and newspaper columnist of the 1920s and '30s who performed many humanitarian acts, is presented annually to a columnist whose work produces tangible benefits for the community served by his or her newspaper. Previous winners include Jeffrey Zaslow of The Wall Street Journal and the author of the national best-seller "The Last Lecture."Grisamore received the award July 9 during the 34th annual conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind."I am honored beyond words," Grisamore said. “But this is more of a reflection on the community and the newspaper than an individual award. I’ve always said the finest people anywhere live in Middle Georgia. I’m a better person just for being around them.In nominating Grisamore for the award, Sherrie Marshall, executive editor of The Telegraph, cited a list of Grisamore's efforts, especially his work leading The Reindeer Gang, the newspaper’s annual holiday charitable giving campaign. She called Grisamore "a wonderful ambassador" for The Telegraph."Ed has told the stories of Middle Georgians in need, an effort that dramatically increased donations to dozens of individuals and families," she said. Middle Georgians contributed more than $90,000 in the past three years to help those in need.Among his other community efforts, Grisamore has led guided tours and written daily columns during the Cherry Blossom Festival, learned ballroom dancing so he could participate in a Make-a-Wish fundraiser for a young girl with leukemia and taught writing at a popular summer camp for youths. He also organized a boot camp for aspiring writers and taught senior citizens to write their autobiographies.As a volunteer Little League coach, he used his columns to campaign for the city to start a Miracle League for special needs children, which became a reality in 2005.He has been a campaign chairman for the March of Dimes and has served on the board of directors for the Salvation Army, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Macon Lions Club.Through his columns, he has supported local efforts to build and repair homes for low-income families. He is a deacon at First Baptist Church of Christ in Macon.Grisamore, a University of Georgia graduate, has been The Telegraph's columnist since 1998. He is the author of six books, one audio book and has won more than 45 writing awards.The UCLA Anderson School of Management on June 29 presented Gerald Loeb Awards for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism to reporters from the McClatchy Washington Bureau and The Miami Herald.
Washington Bureau reporters Greg Gordon, Kevin G. Hall and Chris Adams won the Loeb Award in the news service category for their reporting on Goldman Sachs, Moody's and the collapse of the American economy, which revealed how major Wall Street firms engaged in questionable practices that not only worsened the financial crisis but also may have conflicted with their own clients' interests. Adams, Gordon and Hall also were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for their work.Their stories included Gordon's five-month investigation of how blue-chip investment firm Goldman Sachs' sold securities tied to subprime mortgages at a time when it also was betting that those securities would plummet in value.Adams' stories detailed how the Securities and Exchange Commission repeatedly failed to get tough with major U.S. financial institutions that had violated securities laws.Hall reported how Moody's Investors Service, the bond-rating agency, punished executives who questioned the company's bullish ratings on mortgage-backed securities and promoted those who authorized the ratings for the securities, which turned out to be junk.Miami Herald reporters Michael Sallah, Rob Barry and Lucy Komisar won in the medium and small newspaper category for "Keys to the Kingdom: How State Regulators Enabled a $7 Billion Ponzi Scheme," which revealed how Florida officials helped disgraced financier Allen Stanford entice Latin Americans to pour millions of dollars into his ventures in secrecy and allowed Stanford to move money offshore without reporting a penny of it to regulators.Reporters Rick Montgomery and Dan Margolies of The Kansas City Star were finalists in that category for "Enterprise Rent-A-Car Airbags," which reported how the nation's largest buyer of new cars and seller of used ones saved millions of dollars by deleting a standard safety feature, side-curtain airbags, from thousands of 2006-2008 Chevrolet Impalas.The Loeb Awards were established in 1957 by the late Gerald Loeb to honor journalists who make significant contributions to the understanding of business, finance and the economy. He intended to encourage reporting on these subjects that would both inform and protect the private investor and the general public. The 2010 awards, judged by a panel of distinguished journalists and academics, were presented at a dinner at New York's Capitale restaurant.El Nuevo Herald has been named the best Spanish-language newspaper in Florida in this year's Sunshine State Awards by the South Florida Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
The newspaper, a sister paper of The Miami Herald, "looks and reads like a complete newspaper," the contest's judges wrote, adding that they "particularly enjoyed the Viernes weekend guide section. El Nuevo is clearly ahead of other Spanish-language newspapers in South Florida."The award was announced June 5 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel near Hollywood. Runners-up were the El Sentinel newspapers published by The Orlando Sentinel and The Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale."To be recognized as the leading Spanish-language paper in Florida is an immense honor and a testament to our staff. They are creative, dedicated and passionate," El Nuevo Herald Executive Editor Manny Garcia said. "Our journalists always put our readers first, and you see it in our coverage, whether in Latin America, locally or in our many specialty sections like Viernes."It's also wonderful to see Viernes recognized because Associate Editor Gloria Leal and her team put so much effort into it week after week," Garcia said. "The award, along with other recent honors, speak to the ever-growing clout of Spanish-language publications like El Nuevo Herald."Miami Herald reports exposing spending abuses at Miami-Dade County Hall and the city of Miami were also honored June 5 with the top public service and investigative prizes in the annual Sunshine State Awards.The Miami Herald's reports -- "Public Piggy Banks" -- won both the James K. Batten Award for Distinguished Public Service and the Gene Miller Award for Investigative Reporting. The awards were presented to reporters Matthew Haggman, Charles Rabin, Jack Dolan and Larry Lebowitz. The coverage was edited by Ronnie Greene, investigations and government editor.Among other findings, their reports revealed how county politicians used personal chauffeurs and took first-class junkets across the globe, and how city leaders concealed critical financial breakdowns -- stories that triggered investigations and reforms."Holding public officials to account is exactly what readers expect of a newspaper," said a Batten Award judge, XM/Sirius Radio host Bob Edwards.Also contributing reporting were Michael Sallah, David Ovalle, Scott Hiaasen and Audra D.S. Burch.The contest, which drew 700 entries in a range of categories, is administered by the South Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.Three McClatchy newspapers -- The Miami Herald, The Wichita Eagle and the Tri-City Herald -- won national Sigma Delta Chi Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists on May 3.
** Miami won in the Non-Deadline Reporting category among newspapers with more than 100,000 daily circulation for its coverage of disgraced banker and financier Allen Sanford and his connections to Florida.** The Tri-City Herald in Eastern Washington won in the Feature Reporting category among newspapers with daily circulation up to 50,000 for a profile on a cancer victim and hospice volunteer.** The Wichita Eagle won in the Feature Reporting category among newspapers with daily circulation between 50,001 and 100,000 for "The Miracle of Father Kapaun," the newspaper's in-depth look last year at the life and legacy of Father Emil Kapaun, a Kansas priest and Korean War hero being considered for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church.See the complete roster of winners at the SPJ website.For its five-part series on human trafficking in the United States, The Kansas City Star has earned the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.
The award, known as the "Poor People's Pulitzer," recognizes outstanding coverage of injustice against the underprivileged.In "A New Slavery," reporters Laura Bauer, Mike McGraw and Mark Morris exposed America’s weak enforcement system that allows human trafficking to continue.Last month, Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. gave an award to the same series."The team's impressive reporting results in a distressing collection of individual narratives and a concise legal and policy-based explanation of the nation’s Trafficking Victims Protection Act," read an announcement from the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.Calling The Kansas City Star to relay the news, Ethel Kennedy, the widow of the former attorney general, senator and presidential candidate, told one reporter: "You've given hope to a lot of people who didn’t have hope before. That's right in line with Bobby’s legacy."Sixty judges, all media professionals, selected the winning entries in 11 categories, and a committee of seven advisers chose a grand prize winner. This year, winners wrote on subjects including infant mortality and Navy abuses against gay sailors.The Kansas City Star's series won in the domestic print category."It's a wonderful honor to win such a distinguished award for journalism that champions human rights and social justice. Those remain among the most important issues in the world today," said Mike Fannin, editor/vice president of the Star. "This was inspired work, executed by a great team of journalists and well-deserving of recognition."The Wall Street Journal won in the international category for "Hearts, Mind and Blood: The Battle for Iran." Photographers at The Washington Post won in both the domestic and international photography categories. Diane Sawyer from "20/20" on ABC News won in the domestic television category for her work on enduring poverty in Appalachia.Ethel Kennedy will present the awards May 26 in Washington, D.C., where the grand prize winner will be announced.
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