News honors 14 for excellence

Thirteen Deseret Morning News staff members and the editor who guided the newspaper for the past decade were honored for their work in 2006 at an awards ceremony Tuesday.

New editor and chief operating officer Joseph Cannon, conducting the Mark E. Petersen Awards luncheon for the first time, paid tribute to his predecessor, John Hughes, who left the Deseret Morning News in January to resume a teaching career at Brigham Young University.

Under Hughes' leadership, the Deseret Morning News produced many major journalism projects; earned several national, regional and local journalism awards; and defied industry trends with steady circulation increases, Cannon said.

"Always, throughout a pivotal decade in the history of the Deseret Morning News, John stressed and personified excellence," he said. "It is appropriate, then, to recognize his outstanding leadership with our Extraordinary Achievement Award."

Features writer Scott Pierce took home the 36th annual event's top prize, the Mark E. Petersen Award for Excellence in Writing.

The award's namesake was a staple of the newspaper for 60 years, working his way up from reporter to managing editor and ultimately president and chairman of the board. Petersen also served nearly 40 years as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Pierce was praised for the "readability, comprehensiveness, crispness and creativity" of his work, which can be found throughout the paper. He writes a daily TV column, a weekly sports-on-TV column, cover stories for the features section and news stories about TV-related topics.

"He has a job that everyone envies but not many could actually do," Cannon said.

Police reporter Ben Winslow received the Robert D. Mullins Award for Excellence in Reporting, an honor named after the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who worked at the newspaper from 1951 to 1987.

Deseret Morning News editors describe Winslow as "the Energizer Bunny of the reporting world," motivating his co-workers to work harder and forcing the competition to do the same.

Outstanding Performance awards went to Matt Brown and Chuck Gates, a pair of editors who help direct news coverage on the paper's city desk.

Cannon praised associate city editor Brown as "the consummate journalist" who possesses great news judgment and knows how to "finesse the best work possible out of his colleagues without pushing too hard."