2 Morning News reporters win a national SPJ award

Deseret Morning News reporters Lois M. Collins and Elaine Jarvik have won a national excellence in journalism award for their story on a Utah woman's life-or-death fight against a strep infection.

The Society of Professional Journalists today announced Collins and Jarvik won the feature writing category for newspapers with circulation under 100,000 in this year's Sigma Delta Chi Awards.

Their March 12, 2006, report, "Still Lisa," told the story of Lisa Speckman, wife of Morning News reporter Stephen Speckman. She survived a near-deadly infection following the birth of the couple's second daughter, Lily.

Collins and Jarvik's report had previously taken first place in feature writing in the Utah-Idaho-Spokane Associated Press Association's annual news contest. In that same contest, Deseret Morning News photographer Laura Seitz won second-place honors for her photo essay accompanying "Still Lisa."

Assistant city editor Amy Joi O'Donoghue also worked closely on the story with Collins and Jarvik.

This year's Sigma Delta Chi winners were chosen from more than 1,200 entries in 49 categories, including print, radio, television and online.

The awards will be presented July 20 during the annual Sigma Delta Chi banquet at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

This is the second national excellence in journalism award for Collins. In 2000 she won the same category for "Generations of Tears," her report on a Utah family's tragic history with Huntington's disease.