Published: May 09, 2008 09:02 pm            

EDITOR'S NOTE: T-S staff excels in annual contest for journalism

TERRE HAUTE — The Tribune-Star got some very good news recently when the Indiana Society of Professional Journalists conducted its annual newspaper contest awards banquet in Indianapolis.

Six of our journalists were honored with awards for work they did during 2007. In all, the T-S won 10 awards, six of them for first place, in a variety of categories spanning the array of content we generate on behalf of our legions of readers.

Our newspaper competes in the SPJ contest with other newspapers around the state with paid circulations of 40,000 or less. The Tribune-Star’s circulation is approximately 25,000 Monday through Saturday, 28,000 on Sunday.

Here is the list of our award winners:

• First place — Chad Steenerson, copy editor, for news headlines.

• First place — David Hughes, reporter, for sports reporting. The honored article was a feature David produced about Erica Sell, a Terre Haute South softball player who is recovering from leukemia.

• First place — Mark Bennett, columnist and feature writer, for the best lifestyle feature. Bennett’s article was titled “Rediscovering Summer of Love” and was about how that pivotal year in our history affected America’s small towns.

• First place — Stephanie Salter, assistant editor, for criminal justice reporting. Her winning entry was a series of columns Stephanie wrote about how Amber Alert guidelines changed in the wake of the kidnapping and death of a Terre Haute child.

• First place — Zach Taylor, news editor, for feature page design.

• First place — Jason Koch, copy editor, and Taylor, for best informational graphics.

• Second place — Bennett, for best personality profile.

• Second place — Steenerson, for feature headlines.

• Third place — Koch, for page 1 design.

• Third place — Koch, for news headlines.

This was an exceptional showing by the newsroom staff, one of the best ever in this contest.

Doing well in contests, of course, is not our primary goal. Serving readers with accurate, relevant news and information about their community is our chief goal.

Newspaper contests such as this, however, give our journalists an opportunity to see how they measure up to their peers, and gives them recognition for excellent work they produce. They also serve as a good motivational and instructional tool to help us get better.

I’m proud of our staff’s accomplishments in this contest and believe readers are as well.

        

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