News staffers honored for journalism excellence

SALT LAKE CITY — The Deseret News was honored by two news organizations this past week.

The Deseret News won 24 awards in the annual Utah-Idaho-Spokane Associated Press Association contest, held Thursday night in Park City.

Awards include four first-place honors: Deseret News photographer Jeffrey D. Allred in the portfolio photo division, Mike Terry for portrait photography, Stuart W. Johnson in spot news photography, and Geoff Liesik and Pat Reavy together for a spot news story.

The Deseret News took home eight second-place awards, with Allred winning one each in feature photography, general news photography and for the photo essay category. Other winners in second place included Terry, for photo portfolio and sports photography; August Miller in photo illustration; Tom Smart in portrait photography; and Amy Donaldson for sports column.

Third-place winners included Ravell Call, for feature photo; Joseph M. Dougherty, for feature story; Smart, for general news photo, sports photo, spot news photo and portfolio photography; Allred, for photo essay; Lois M. Collins, James Thalman and Carrie A. Moore for special interest projects; T.J. Kirkpatrick, for sports feature photo; and Mike Sorensen, for spot news story.

In all, Deseret News' photography staff received 17 awards, placing in every category.

Friday marked the annual Utah Headliners Awards for the Society of Professional Journalists, during which several Deseret News reporters and photographers were honored for their work.

Bob Bernick Jr., political analyst and longtime reporter for the Deseret News, was honored for his time spent working at the paper with a Giants in Journalism award. Last month, Bernick retired.

Deseret News took home first-place awards for Johnson in spot news photography and Scott Winterton in general news photography. Doug Robinson received a first-place award for education news coverage.

Deseret News also took third place for Best Newspaper Coverage in the state, in its over 50,000-circulation category.

Third-place awards went to the paper for 2009 best reporter, awarded to Collins, third in spot news to Reavy and third in continuing coverage to Laura Hancock. A team of reporters earned honorable mention for a story about municipal garbage collection.

A series of stories, "In sickness or in health," by Moore, Collins and Thalman, took second place. Sara Israelsen-Hartley took third place in medical/science reporting.