Note: Written by Staff
By Staff
March 22, 2017
‘There was never a dull moment in Lancaster this year,’ judge says
The Lancaster News brought home 31 awards, and its three sister
newspapers another 27, from Saturday’s S.C. Press Association annual
meeting in Columbia.
Among the Lancaster News staff’s first-place
honors were best election and political coverage, best special edition
for its Honoring Veterans section, and best reporting-in-depth for
coverage marking the death and legacy of Mayor Joe Shaw.
“There
was never a dull moment in Lancaster this year,” a contest judge wrote,
“from the death of a longtime mayor to charges of plagiarism against a
local candidate. Fortunately for Lancaster residents, The Lancaster News
had exhaustive coverage of these things and a myriad of other local and
national political issues.”
Publisher Susan Rowell congratulated the
news staff for an outstanding year. “I am extremely proud of the
quality of community journalism we provide our readers,” Rowell said.
“Being recognized by the SCPA is much-deserved praise for the entire
news team’s hard work.”
The newspaper won third place for general
excellence, competing in the 2016 contest against other papers that
publish two to three times a week.
Nine Lancaster News staffers won individual awards.
Mandy
Catoe, in her first year at the newspaper, won two first-place awards
for beat reporting – government and business – and a third place for
faith reporting.
Athena Redmond, the paper’s lead designer, won first
places for photo-page design and inside-page design and third places
for her portfolio of front-page designs and a single feature-page
design. Kyle Camp won both second- and third-place design awards for his
business and education pages, as well as a writing award – second place
for best short story.
Other visual awards went to Reece Murphy,
whose photo of firefighters at a massive Indian Land house fire won
first place for spot-news photo, and Greg Summers, who won second place
in general news photography for his image from a candlelight vigil for
murder victim Yusuf Abdus-Salaam.
Murphy also won a first-place
writing award for his coverage of the courts beat. And Summers won three
writing awards – second place in enterprise reporting for stories about
the local shortage of volunteer firefighters, and second place for both
government and faith-beat reporting.
Sports Editor Robert Howey won
three awards, including first place in sports features for his story
about Buford High School track athlete John Elliott. Howey won second
place for spot sports story for his account of the Buford softball
team’s state championship. And he won third place for column writing.
Chris
Sardelli, who left the paper last spring after eight years, won four
writing awards. “The Challenge of a Lifetime,” his week-long look at
Buford resident Wesley Dry’s Appalachian Trail journey, won first place
for a series of articles. He also won second place for investigative
reporting, second place for education-beat reporting and third place for
profile writing.
Summer intern Kayland Hagwood, a junior at the University of South Carolina, earned third place for police-beat reporting.
Editor
Brian Melton won first place in short-story writing for his memories of
Christmas eves at his grandmother-in-law’s house, and third place for
opinion-page columns and for feature headlines.
Other Landmark newspapers
Carolina Gateway, which covers Lancaster County’s Panhandle, won four awards.
Chris Sardelli won first place in investigative reporting for his coverage of the county’s economic development conflicts.
Editor
Jane Alford won third place for sports page design portfolio.
Freelancer Julie Graham won third place for feature photo. The Gateway
staff won third place in entertainment sections for the Indian Land Fall
Festival.
The Chester News & Reporter won 19 awards.
For the
second year in a row, Editor Travis Jenkins took home one of the top
SCPA honors, the Montgomery/Shurr Freedom of Information Award, for
coverage of a Senate candidate’s SLED investigation and the dismissal of
the county school superintendent. Jenkins also won first place for
sports enterprise reporting, second place for sports columns and food
writing, and third place for investigative reporting.
Jenkins and James McBee shared first and third place honors for sports videos.
Jenkins
and Brian Garner shared second place for reporting-in-depth, and Garner
won third place for series of articles and both second and third place
for humorous photo.
Nancy Parsons won second place for her
community-beat reporting and for her lifestyle-feature writing. She won
second place for online photo gallery and third place for photo story.
Freelancer Bill Marion won third-place awards for sports action photo and personality portrait.
The News & Reporter also won third place awards for its opinion page and political coverage.
The Pageland Progressive won four awards.
Editor
Kimberly Harrington won third place for features page design, and she
and reporter Vanessa Brewer-Tyson won third place for breaking-news
reporting.
Freelance photographer Kevin Smith won second place for general news photo and third for humorous photo.
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