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Friday March 12, 2010
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Friday March 12, 2010
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Judges recognized Menéndez for her columns on Miami, which included Fidel Castro ceding power and the University of Miami's janitor strike; her reports helped janitors obtain health benefits and earn higher wages.
Menéndez, 36, has been a Metro columnist since July 2005.
The Sacramento Bee's Jocelyn Wiener and The Miami Herald's Debbie Cenziper earned first-place spots in separate categories for newspapers with circulation above 100,001.
Wiener received first place in the single-story category for her article "Priced out of paradise." The report covered the exodus of mid-wage professionals from the Tahoe basin. The report recounted how the number of year-round residents on the California side of Lake Tahoe has declined at least 20 percent in the past three years. Unable to afford homes, workers such as teachers, nurses, bank tellers, police officers and civil servants are moving "off the mountain." Left is a divided population of out-of-towners who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for weekend homes and low-wage workers who can't afford to leave.
Cenziper was awarded first place for her series of articles, "House of Lies," which also has earned a McClatchy President's Award and a George Polk Award. The investigation revealed breakdowns in Miami-Dade County's affordable housing program that left the poor in unsafe and decrepit homes. The series led to numerous firings within the local public housing agency and the arrest of a prominent local developer.
Reporter Debbie Cenziper won one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious journalism awards, the George Polk Award, and editorial cartoonist Jim Morin was named the 2007 winner of the Herblock Prize for distinguished news cartoons.
Cenziper received the George Polk Award for metropolitan reporting for her series, "House of Lies," which revealed breakdowns in Miami-Dade County's affordable housing program that left the poor in unsafe and decrepit homes.
Cenziper was the lead reporter on The Miami Herald's series, which sparked widespread reforms and the arrest of one of the key developers. Other Herald reporters who contributed to the project were Larry Lebowitz, Susannah A. Nesmith, Tim Henderson and Monika Z. Leal. The series was edited by investigations editor Michael Sallah. Cenziper will be recognized with the other recipients April 12 in New York.
Morin will receive a $10,000 award at an April 4 ceremony in Washington, D.C. Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw will deliver the keynote address at the Library of Congress.
The Herblock Prize was created by the Herb Block Foundation to recognize editorial cartoonists who "exemplify the courageous, independent standard set by" Block, a late Washington Post cartoonist.
"He just gets better and better," said Jeff Danziger, last year's winner and a judge of this year's contest.
Harry Katz, the foundation's curator and a contest judge, praised Morin for his cartoons' "artistry, courage and conviction."
Morin joined The Miami Herald in 1978. He shared a Pulitzer Prize with other members of the paper's editorial board in 1983, and he won another Pulitzer in 1996 for his editorial cartoons.
The papers are recipients of the association's 2007 Digital Edge Awards, or "Edgies," which recognize publishers that engage online audiences with web-enhanced news coverage and interactive marketing.
The Fresno Bee's John Muir Trail blog was awarded for "Most Innovative Multimedia Storytelling" in the 75,000 to 250,000 circulation category. The reporting project can be seen at www.fresnobeehive.com/jmt/.
The Miami Herald was recognized for "Best Classified Innovation" in the more than 250,000 circulation category. The winning entry, pets classifieds, can be seen at www.buyit.miami.com/findit/pets/index.htm.
The Star Tribune was honored in three categories, all for newspapers with circulation greater than 250,000. StarTribune.com was recognized for "Best Design and Site Architecture."; Vita.mn was awarded "Best Local Guide or Entertainment Site"; and ShopMinnesota took the "Best Local Shopping and Directory Strategy" category.
The Press Club of Dallas announced the winners earlier this month. Competitors come from six states -- Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
Star-Telegram staff also won the Legacy Award for a series of stories about conditions in the Tarrant County Jail. The award honors communications work that improves the lives of people in the communities. Staff writer Leila Fadel also was honored for best reporting portfolio.
Overall, the Star-Telegram won 14 awards for reporting, photography, graphics and design, and for best visual content of a news website.
In the category for Spanish-language newspapers, the Star-Telegram's Diario La Estrella won two awards. Staff writers Sandra Velazquez won for best sports story and Jose L. Castillo for best series.
The story, which recounted problems ranging from delays in providing care to inmates losing untreated fingers and toes to infection, helped bring changes to the Sacramento County jail. By spring, the county grand jury had released its own assessment of the jail, echoing many of the reporters' findings. And in the fall, the sheriff agreed to appoint an independent oversight adviser to monitor inmate treatment.
The award recipients are chosen by the Center on Media, Crime and Justice to acknowledge journalists "whose reporting informs and enhances the public's understanding of issues related to crime in America," the organization said in its announcement.
The Sacramento Bee won in the individual article category while the San Jose Mercury News won for a series about legal misconduct in criminal trials.
In the announcement, Jeremy Travis, president of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York which coordinates the award, said: "The Sacramento Bee's and the San Jose Mercury News' stories were very important pieces of journalism -- highlighting issues of critical importance to their community."
Tri-City Herald reporter John Trumbo received the 2006 Ted M. Natt Jr. First Amendment Award for his "Donations for Deals" series detailing how people were buying their way out of crimes as serious as DUIs.
Trumbo's work was praised by judges as "an excellent, courageous job of research and reporting on an important public issue done by a smaller newspaper with a significant impact."
The award is named for the former publisher of The Daily News of Longview, Wash. Competition was open to newspapers in five states -- Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Montana -- that are members of the Associated Press. The award was a first for the Tri-City Herald. Trumbo's series of stories also won a McClatchy President's Award earlier this year.
In addition, Tri-City Herald reporters Cara Fitzpatrick and Anna King each won second place in two categories for under 50,000 circulation newspapers in the 2006 C.B. Blethen Memorial Awards for Distinguished Newspaper Reporting named in memory of the late publisher of The Seattle Times from 1915 until 1941.
Fitzpatrick took second in investigative reporting for "911 Disconnect" about problems in a new, multimillion-dollar emergency dispatch system. King took second place in diversity reporting for her "Off the Land" series about how Northwest tribes are striving to retain their heritage as hunter-gatherers and fishers. The two latest Blethen awards bring to 30 the number the Tri-City Herald has won since 1988.
Two other McClatchy newspapers also took home prestigious Blethen Awards.
The News Tribune in Tacoma won first place for "Shooting at the Tacoma Mall" in the deadline reporting category for newspapers with more than 50,000 circulation.
The Idaho Statesman in Boise took home a second-place for diversity reporting among newspapers with more than 50,000 circulation. Reporter Tim Woodward won the award for "Nimiipuu: The Story of the Nez Perce" about the history of the Nez Perce told from the Nez Perce perspective.
The Washington bureau was honored for "Discharged and Dishonored," a series on the nation's dysfunctional veterans disability system. The series was honored for best consumer affairs reporting from the competition, which recognizes outstanding feature sections as well as health and consumer reporting.
The Star-Telegram was cited for general excellence for features sections for mid-sized newspapers.
The veterans package, by reporters Chris Adams and Alison Young, was written in 2005 when the bureau was operated by Knight Ridder. The stories, which detailed extensive delays and mistakes within the Department of Veterans Affairs' disability compensation system, were published by all of the chain's 32 papers.
Judges called the veterans articles "a powerful piece of investigative, public service journalism. These reporters combined the tools of computer-assisted reporting and old-fashioned interviewing with the classic journalistic commitment to right a wrong. The reporting is both broad and deep, the writing compelling. It's no surprise that this is work that led to reform."
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram won the award for general excellence for features sections for mid-sized newspapers.
Judges said the feature section "has both depth and breadth. ... The pages are full of staff-written stories and photographs, the design demonstrates the staff members know how people use newspapers, and the content is both fun and informative. You get a sense of the community as you peruse these sections."
Jane Wooldridge, travel editor at The Miami Herald, has been named Travel Journalist of the Year by the Society of American Travel Writers.
Wooldridge took the top honor during the 22nd annual Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition. The awards, recognized as the most prestigious honors in travel journalism, were announced in Santiago, Chile, at the annual convention of the society, which is a professional organization of travel journalists and communicators.
Wooldridge also brought The Miami Herald the society's highest acclaim for sections with a gold award for best travel section for newspapers with circulation of 350,000 to 499,999.
She further bolstered the paper's reputation with a second-place silver award in the Service-Oriented Consumer Article category for her story, "For Deals in a Hurry, Online's In."
Judges praised Wooldridge's versatility and talent as the Travel Journalist of the Year.
"When you accompany Jane Wooldridge to Hanoi, or on a cut-rate cruise, or watch her welcome strangers into her home, you are in the company of a writer with a sharp eye, a keen ear and a light touch," judges wrote. "In a strong category, her work stands out. She is both a diligent reporter and a master storyteller."
As for best travel section, judges called The Miami Herald's issues fun and accessible with "news you can use."
The State beat out about 70 other entries with a section the judges called "young and energetic, not a typical paper.
"The State uses great color and vivid images to cover its stories. A 'drop-dead gorgeous' Dance section was one of the memorable pieces in this paper. It had attention-grabbing front pages, a good local focus and good young-reader appeal," the judges said.
This is the second year in a row that the Columbia, S.C., newspaper's feature section has been honored. The 10 winners, chosen from four circulation divisions, were among 20 semifinalists, which included one other McClatchy paper -- the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas.
Sun-Star reporter Chris Collins began examining reports of unethical behavior by the district attorney in January. The ongoing series revealed Spencer impersonated an investigator in his office for personal gain, abused the county's reimbursement policies by using county-owned vehicles and cell phones while receiving hundreds of dollars monthly for the use of his own phone and car, and purchased property from a man in jail whom he was prosecuting.
The Sun-Star stories competed in the contest against similar entries from newspapers across the U.S. and Canada. The Sun-Star was honored in the under 40,000 circulation category.
Spencer resigned in August and now is under investigation by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. Merced County has strengthened its reimbursement policies as a result of the series.
APME, an association of editors from 1,500 AP newspapers across the United States and Canada, honors excellence in journalism with awards for public service, First Amendment protection, international coverage and online content. The awards will be presented at APME's annual conference in October in New Orleans.
The national media trade publication lists what it calls an annual honor roll of innovative newspapers that "have made great strides – and can serve as a model – in one or more important areas."
The Eagle was singled out for moving quickly to find and implement new ways to reach readers, most notably with WichiTalk, the lifestyle section that debuted in October.
That section – and other changes planned for the paper – came out of 70 intense hours of brainstorming meetings over a few days last summer. That process won praise from Editor & Publisher because normally papers take months to develop new sections or redesign old ones.
"WichiTalk's fast-paced mix of locally focused lifestyle features and 'news you can use' appears to be finding the audience that's proven so elusive for newspapers everywhere: working moms with kids at home and a lot on their minds," the magazine said.
The McClatchy Company