Daily Pilot, TimesOC win awards at Orange County Press Club gala

Times Community News, which publishes the Daily Pilot and TimesOC, won seven awards at the Orange County Press Club’s 2018 Excellence in Journalism Awards & Gala on June 14 at the Newport Beach Marriott.

Daily Pilot staff writer Hannah Fry won first place in the breaking news category for her Sept. 27 account of a Huntington Beach police shooting and second place in the best news story competition for a Nov. 10 piece about homeless people being removed from encampments along the Santa Ana River.

Daily Pilot staff writer Luke Money took third in breaking news for a Nov. 8 article on the Costa Mesa City Council’s decision to unseat its mayor. A Dec. 21 piece by Money on a Costa Mesa family’s creative use of seasonal puns in their holiday decorations placed third in the Marjorie Freeman Award category for best humorous story.

Pilot columnist Barbara Venezia won third place for a series of columns on how she’d like the cities of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa to perform background checks on commission appointees.

TimesOC contributor Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil won first place in the food and restaurant writing category for a Nov. 29 story on the second-generation restaurant scene in Little Saigon.

Former TimesOC entertainment editor Kathleen Luppi received third place in the music and entertainment category for a Sept. 14 Daily Pilot article on singer Pat Boone celebrating his 60th year in show business.

“In some ways the Orange County Press Club Awards mean the most to me because the recognition for our small, tireless staff is coming from our peers,” said John Canalis, executive editor of Times Community News. “I tell anyone who will listen that O.C. is rich with important and engaging subjects and that the journalists working here are some of the most dogged and dedicated in the business.”

The Daily Pilot and TimesOC are owned by and inserted in the Los Angeles Times.

UPDATES:

6:25 p.m.: This article was updated to include an award won by Daily Pilot columnist Barbara Venezia.