Deseret News garners 74 awards

The Deseret News picked up 74 awards — including 20 first-place honors and the overall general excellence award — Saturday evening from the Utah Headliners Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Recipients were honored at an annual awards banquet, where reporters, photographers, headline writers, page and Web site designers and broadcast journalists were recognized for their work during the past year.

The paper won more than half of all awards given to the seven Utah newspapers that entered the contest, which was judged by independent journalists at news organizations outside the state.

Deseret News staff members swept the top three honors in seven separate categories — opinion/column writing, sports news, health reporting, social services reporting, newspaper design, spot news photography and photo essay.

Joel Campbell, a former Deseret News staffer and former SPJ president, won the society's Clifford P. Cheney Service to Journalism Award. Lee Davidson, Deseret News Washington, D.C., correspondent, won the Roy B. Gibson Freedom of Information Award for his use of the Freedom of Information Act as an important news-gathering tool.

The society's first-place investigative reporting award was renamed the Don Baker Investigative Journalism Award after the late Deseret News reporter, admired for his hard-hitting, well-documented journalism. Baker also was on the staff of the Ogden Standard-Examiner for many years.

The following is a list of other award winners:

ALL MEDIA

News-oriented Web site, general excellence: 1. www.deseretnews.com; 2. www.standard.net

Editorials: 1. Marjorie Cortez, Deseret News; 2. Lex Hemphill, Salt Lake Tribune; 3. Nat Chalat Noaker, Park Record.

Opinion/columns: 1. Cathy Free, Deseret News; 2. Scott Iwasaki, Deseret News; 3. Gib Twyman, Deseret News; Honorable Mention: Tom Clyde, Park Record.

Reviews/criticism: 1. Jeff Inman, City Weekly; 2. Ben Fulton, City Weekly; 3. Sean Means, Salt Lake Tribune.

PRINT

Editorial cartoon: 1. "Now That's a Knife," Calvin Grondahl, Standard-Examiner; 2. "LaVell Edwards Resigns," Jonathan Brown, Deseret News; 3. "Kilbourn Cartoon," John Kilbourn, Park Record.