Journal takes home four top awards
News, features, sports all shine
Albuquerque Journal staff took home firstplace awards for news writing, feature writing and sports columns and also earned top honors for sports coverage in the 2015-2016 Better Newspaper Contest.
The winners of the contest, which is sponsored jointly by the New Mexico Press Association and the New Mexico Associated Press Managing Editors, were announced Saturday night at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa at Santa Ana Pueblo as part of the association’s convention.
The Journal competed in the Daily Class 1, or large newspaper, category. The Utah Press Association judged the contest.
Journal investigative reporter Mike Gallagher won first place in the news writing category for his work headlined “Turnstile thugs terrorize ABQ,” in which contest judges said the writer “offers a thorough report on the turnstile of the state’s justice system, using as a strong hook the shooting death of Albuquerque Police Officer Daniel Webster.”
In the feature writing category, staff writer Rick Nathanson took first place for his story “They’d rather work than panhandle.” The piece provided a look at the city of Albuquerque’s There’s a Better Way program offering poor and homeless people jobs so they don’t have to panhandle.
Sports section editor Randy Harrison was honored with a first-place award in the sports columns category for “Jones should take all of his Bonehead behavior elsewhere” — a critical commentary on mixed-martial arts fighter Jon “Bones” Jones.
Sports section staff also received first place in the sports coverage category. As the judges noted: “Strong local features gave this entry the edge.”
A number of Journal staff members also received runner-up awards. They were: D’Val Westphal for editorials; Kathaleen Roberts for feature writing; Geoff Grammer for sports writing; Mark Smith for sports columns; Sally Trigg for headline writing; Roberto E. Rosales for general news photo and feature photo; Morgan Petroski, Dean Hanson, Jim Thompson, Marla Brose and Adolphe Pierre-Louis for photo series; Joe Kirby and Leah Derrington for design and typography; and Cathryn Cunningham, Joe Kirby and photo staff for information graphic.
On the technical side, runnerup awards were given to Robert Browman, Donn Friedman, Nicole Perez and Elise Kaplan for best mobile app — the ABQ Fiesta app — and to Browman, Friedman, Dave Jordan and Tyler Green for website — ABQJournal.com.
The New Mexico Associated Press Member of the Year, which is given for outstanding cooperation, went to the Hobbs News-Sun.