The Palo Alto Weekly’s staff was awarded the top prize for quality online journalism by the California Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspapers Contest on Saturday, April 30, in San Francisco. The award was part of a suite of wins for the community media outlet and its news staff, including five first-place and eight second-place awards.
Journalists from states outside of California selected the winners of the annual competition from among daily, weekly and school newspapers out of thousands of entries.
The Weekly, which employs a newsroom staff of 11 journalists under Editor-in-Chief Jocelyn Dong, competed against other weekly newspapers with circulations of more than 25,000.
This year’s first-place awards were:
• Video Journalism: Invisible Illness, Photographer/Videographer Veronica Weber
• Best Editorial Comment: Beyond the anguish, Publisher Bill Johnson
• Best Sports Game Story: Stanford wins it all again, Assistant Sports Editor Rick Eymer
• Best Writing: The Story of Cuba, former Arts & Entertainment Editor Elizabeth Schwyzer
• General Excellence – Online, Weekly staff
Second-place awards were:
• Artistic Photo: “Sunset at the Baylands,” Photographer/Videographer Veronica Weber
• Sports Feature Photo: “SHP makes big splash with titles,” Sports Editor Keith Peters
• Coverage of Education: Too much homework?, Staff Writer Elena Kadvany
• Coverage of Business News: Embarking on a new commute, Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner
• Coverage of Local Government: “Closure of Buena Vista Mobile Home Park,” Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner
• Non-Profile Feature Story: Living authentically, Staff Writer Elena Kadvany
• Enterprise News Story or Series: Beyond the 5150, Staff Writer Elena Kadvany
• General Excellence – Print, Weekly staff
In addition, individual Weekly staff received 11 honorable-mention awards:
Sam Sciolla, for his story about farmers markets during the drought; Sue Dremann and Veronica Weber for their story about family struggling with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; Weber for her feature photo, “Notes from Whitney” and her photo essay about helping Syrian Christian refugees; Dremann for her story about local human trafficking; Elizabeth Schwyzer for her story about a local drag show; Keith Peters for a story about a tennis squad of brothers; Bill Johnson for his editorial about early-class scheduling and student sleep deprivation; Schwyzer and staff for Arts and Entertainment coverage; Peters for Best Sports page and Shannon Corey for Best front Page Tabloid.
The Weekly’s sister papers, the Mountain View Voice, snagged General Excellence for print in its circulation category of 11,000-25,000, along with a dozen of other first- and second-place awards, and the Almanac received two second-place awards — for coverage of local government and best writing.
By
By
By
Saturday evening, April 30
A totally well-deserved honor! An adornment to our community! An appropriate recognition for a lot of hard work, all year long, and consistent integrity.
Thank you, Weekly staff!
Marc Vincenti
Save the 2,008
A from-the-heart congratulations to the entire staff for a superb product, week in and week out! But isn’t it getting a bit boring winning all those General Excellence awards, not to mention the plethora of individual and multi-staff awards? Very best to all. -jay (Former editor, retired.)
Congratulations to Bill Johnson and his hard-working, talented staff, especially Elena Kadvany whose professional coverage of youth mental health has been vital to bringing the improvements now underway. Thank you!
Congratulations on a well deserved award.
You serve the community well.
Respectfully
Congratulations and thanks for the great coverage you provide for Palo Alto.
Thank you for helping us keep abreast of what decisions and issues are arising in our community. Well done.