The Palo Alto Weekly picked up five first-place and two second-place awards from the California Newspaper Publishers' Association Saturday while its sister paper, the Almanac, received a coveted general excellence award for mid-size weeklies statewide.
The Weekly received first-place awards for:
• Best Web site, for its community Web site, Palo Alto Online, which posts breaking news stories and includes the Town Square forum, blogs and other features.
• Freedom of Information, for its successful legal challenge to the City of Palo Alto's refusal to release information about punishment of officials involved in a Utilities Department scandal of mismanagement and inadequate supervision.
• Environmental reporting, for its year-long coverage of global warming by Sue Dremann, Don Kazak, Becky Trout, Molly Tanenbaum, Alexandria Rocha and Bill D'Agostino. A copy of the Weekly with Dremann's cover story was given to Al Gore when he visited the area.
• A special issue, the "Neighborhoods" publication edited by Assistant Editor Carol Blitzer.
• A photo essay by Chief Photographer Norbert von der Groeben.
It received second-place awards for overall sports coverage by Sports Editor Keith Peters and a sports story by contributor Craig Wentz.
The Almanac, which principally covers Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley and Woodside in south San Mateo County, received the general excellence award for overall quality, first-place awards for public service and a feature story, and a second-place award for freedom of information.
The Mountain View Voice, also a sister paper to the Weekly, was awarded a first place for columns by Editor Don Frances.
Other sister papers also won awards: The Pacific Sun in Marin County won first places for columns and a feature photo and a second-place for a special issue, and the Pleasanton Weekly won a second-place award for a business/financial story.
Comments
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jul 15, 2007 at 4:02 pm
on Jul 15, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Congratulations to all.
Particularly congratulations to my personal favorite, Norbert von de Groeben (I especially love the name) who I really enjoy seeing at events around town with his camera and also in our neighborhood walking his dog.
Downtown North
on Jul 16, 2007 at 2:20 pm
on Jul 16, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Well-deserved. The Weekly has grown and matured along with available technology.
Don't let your guard down, Weekly - keep charging forward. More real-time information; more extensibility to portable devices; more individual, controversial, noteworthy blogs (this needs work and development) from people with strong, informed opinions; more hard-hitting front pages (gee, enough about "art" on the front page already! - I love Art, but there's a limit); more youthful voices represented, in ways that do more than mimic the stereotypical mage that we have about youth; more on seniors as people who are living, and thriving - instead of simply "hanging"; more unusual angles on sport; how about Weekly 'broadcasts? - I'll do it!; and so on...
maybe I should start my own newspaper, or opinion pages, or whatever? Hmmmmm......
Downtown North
on Jul 16, 2007 at 3:21 pm
on Jul 16, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Alas, it seems the Newspaper Publishers' Association must not have looked at the Best of Palo Alto survey when they gave PaloAltoOnline.com their first place web site award. For each category (best burrito, best ice cream, etc.), the PAW provided a list of some, but not all, of the local businesses serving that category. Because people are more inclined to choose a business from a list than to write-in another business not on the list, the eventual results will be biased in favor of the particular businesses the PAW has chosen to list. The results of this year's Best of survey certainly won't be influencing my dining and shopping dollars.
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jul 16, 2007 at 3:29 pm
on Jul 16, 2007 at 3:29 pm
I beg to differ with the poster above. My survey selections were not influenced by what was there, quite often I had no experience of the businesses that were listed. I nearly always listed my opinion from my own experience.
It would be interesting to hear how others voted now that the votes are all in.
Midtown
on Jul 16, 2007 at 4:01 pm
on Jul 16, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Researcher, not only that, but the write-ins won't count until next year.
And the newspaper spread encouraging people to vote is surrounded by advertisements from last year's winners! It's scandalously biased. Heavens forbid that an establishment that isn't an advertiser will win.
Fairmeadow
on Jun 6, 2017 at 3:50 am
on Jun 6, 2017 at 3:50 am
Due to repeated violations of our Terms of Use, comments from this poster are automatically removed. Why?