Los Angeles Times Earns L.A. Press Club’s Southern California Journalism Awards for Range of Work

The Los Angeles Times, Times Community News, L.A. Times Studios and “L.A. Times Today” were honored by the Los Angeles Press Club for a wide range of work in the 64th annual Southern California Journalism Awards, which were announced at a gala on June 25.

Among the highlights, Foreign Correspondent and Photographer Marcus Yam was honored with the Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism. Yam, who recently won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for images documenting the U.S. departure from Afghanistan, called the award “a great privilege and honor,” noting he was “only a teenager” when he read about Daniel Pearl, the American journalist who was captured and later killed by terrorists in Pakistan.

“I did not know then that I was going to end up being a journalist later in my life,” Yam said. “But I remember that his story inspired me to live meaningfully. This award serves as a reminder that we have a responsibility to create work that fosters a better understanding of the world and can leave an impact on our readers, even in the face of danger.

“I hope I will be able to continue honoring Daniel’s life by striving to never shy away, and brave the unknown,” Yam added.

Yam was also named Photographer/Videographer of the Year in the contest, while Staff Writer Ryan Kartje was named Sports Journalist of the Year.

In announcing Kartje’s win, the competition’s judges noted that his sports reporting goes beyond the recounting of wins and losses, performance stats and standard analysis. “He is interested in what makes an athlete tick and what we (the readers) have in common with our heroes,” the judges wrote. “Kartje keeps it real. There is no tiptoeing along the sacred surface. The expressiveness of his writing is equal to his need to peel back the layers of a story. This is the kind of reporting that leads to a deeper understanding of our idols — and of ourselves.”

In all, The Times received 86 awards across dozens of categories. Here’s the list of winners by category:

Journalist of the Year

Sports Journalist – any platform
First place: Ryan Kartje

Photojournalist/Videographer
First place: Marcus Yam

All Media Platforms – Print, Radio, Podcast, TV or Online

Medical/Health Reporting
Third place: Thomas Curwen, “She was dying of COVID-19. Her last hope would save her or kill her”

Technology Reporting
Second place: Brian Contreras, “What Facebook knew about its Latino-aimed disinformation problem”

Travel Reporting
Second place: Christopher Reynolds, “Paddle Into the Past: I took a rare (and affordable) trip to one of the most scenic parts of the West Coast”
Third place: Lila Seidman, “Surviving a nighttime visitor and other beginner backpacking adventures on Santa Rosa Island”

Religion/Spiritual Reporting
Second place: Sarah Parvini, “Black Muslims: Finding community and faith in South L.A.”

Multimedia Package
First place: Rosanna Xia, Paul Duginski and Sean Greene, “Can reviving beach dunes help California with sea level rise?”
Third place: Liam Dillon, Ben Poston, Szu Yu Chen, Aida Ylanan and Rahul Mukherjee, “Freeways force out residents in communities of color — again”

Criticism of TV
First place: Lorraine Ali

Criticism of Theater/Performing Arts
First place: Charles McNulty

Criticism of Art/Architecture/Design
First place: Christopher Knight

Criticism of Food/Culture
Second place: Bill Addison
Third place: Lucas Kwan Peterson

Print/Online – Any outlet, including news bureaus and correspondents

Editorials
First place: Kerry Cavanaugh, “To save California, sacrifice single-family zoning”
Third place: Mariel Garza, “Newsom could be replaced by someone with a tiny fraction of the vote. That’s nuts”

Headline
First place: Daryl H. Miller, “A city looks up Marilyn Monroe’s dress”
Second place: Jim Barrero, “Wince and repeat”
Third place: Dave Bowman, “Thin Mints on your phone? Enable those cookies”

Local Political/Government Reporting
Second place: Adam Elmahrek, “‘They thought I was so low’: Women say they were harassed, bullied, ignored at powerful water agency”

Environmental Reporting
First place: Evan Halper, Carolyn Cole and Jackeline Luna, “California’s electric car revolution, designed to save the planet, also unleashes a toll on it”
Second place: Anna M. Phillips, Tony Barboza, Ruben Vives, Sean Greene and Genaro Molina, “Heat waves are far deadlier than we think. How California neglects this climate threat”

Humor/Satire Writing
First place: Adam Tschorn, “My dad was dying, but a goofy Thanksgiving hat helped my family cope”

Solutions Journalism
Second place: Leila Miller, “He befriended his brother’s murderer. In each other, they found healing”

Immigration Reporting
Third place: Molly Hennessy-Fiske, “Losing Rosario: A mother sent her daughter across the border. Before they could reunite, one died”

Crime Reporting
Second place: Alene Tchekmedyian and James Queally, “L.A. County sheriff refuses to name deputies who open fire, defying state’s high court”
Third place: Doug Smith, James Queally and Genaro Molina, “24 fires a day: Surge in flames at L.A. homeless encampments a growing crisis”

Sports – Any News or Feature on Sports
First place: Steve Henson, “Signed, sealed, delivered: How the gift of a 1963 baseball connected two Oxnard men”
Third place: Dan Woike, “Just a kid from Hawthorne: The high stakes of Russell Westbrook’s homecoming”

Sports Commentary
Second place: Bill Shaikin, “MLB should consider moving 2021 All-Star game from Atlanta”
Third place: Dylan Hernandez, “Do allegations of harassment, bullying make Trevor Bauer a risk for Dodgers?”

Art/Photography – All Platforms

News Photo
First place: Marcus Yam, “Gaza in Ruin”

Feature Photo
First place: Allen J. Schaben, “Surfing with goats at the San Clemente Pier”

Photo Essay (single topic) Culture/Entertainment
First place: Jay L. Clendenin, “A year in film”

Photo Essay (single topic) News/News Feature
First place: Gina Ferazzi, “California’s climate nomads: The 2018 Camp fire left them homeless, struggling to survive”
Second place: Marcus Yam, “Sorrow and Defiance”

Print – Any Outlet

Hard News
Third place: Los Angeles Times Staff, “Massive oil spill sends crude onto Orange County beaches, killing birds, marine life”

Lifestyle Feature
Second place: Lisa Boone, “Two L.A. families turned a McMansion into the ultimate pandemic pod. How’d they do it?”
Third place: Cindy Carcamo, “I tried to start a pandemic pod for my 5-year-old. Here’s how it went wrong”

Race and Society
First place: Anh Do, “White residents burned this California Chinatown to the ground. An apology came 145 years later.”
Third place: Yvonne Villarreal, “‘Selena’ writers say Netflix series disrespected the singer — and staff”

Pandemic Reporting
First place: Joe Mozingo, “For two COVID-19 patients, life and death rests on ‘el tubo’”
Second place: Marisa Gerber, “COVID-19 took away their last moments together. Now families cherish what was left behind”

Business – An article or series
First place: Hugo Martín, “CEOs promised to cut their pay during the pandemic. Here’s how they wound up earning more”
Third place: Connor Sheets, “From Alabama to California, a trip along the broken supply chain”

Newspapers: Over 50,000 circulation

News Feature – General News/Hard News
First place: Ryan Kartje, “Ex-Trojan Chris Brown drowned in a Malibu pool; his death opened a window into his life”
Second place: Thomas Curwen, “A bomb, a death, a war’s painful legacy: Remembering the first Californian killed in Afghanistan”

News Feature – Society/Culture/History
Second place: Daniel Miller, “J.P. Morgan’s million-dollar pocket watch vanished. The hunt for it became an obsession”

Entertainment News or Feature
First place: August Brown, “A homeless L.A. musician helped create a Daft Punk classic. So why hasn’t he seen a dime?”
Second place: Jen Yamato, “How the F9 team sought justice for Han and shaped the franchise’s future”
Third place: Greg Braxton, “Last summer, Disney promised change. Then the first Black ‘Bachelor’s’ season unraveled”

Personality Profile
First place: Meredith Blake, “Molly Shannon is a comedy legend. Now she’s opening up about the tragedy that shaped her”
Second place: Deborah Vankin, “Academy Museum hired a hawk. His name is Spencer, and he scares for a living”

Investigative
First place: Jack Dolan, Kim Christensen, Melody Gutierrez and Brittny Mejia, “California Medical Board and Troubled Doctors”
Second place: Jessica Gelt, “The women who brought down Burger Records”
Third place: Alene Tchekmedyian, Ben Poston and Julia Barajas, “L.A. sheriff’s deputies use minor stops to search bicyclists, with Latinos hit hardest”

Commentary
First place: LZ Granderson
Third place: Jean Guererro

Columnist – One person’s viewpoint
First place: Erika D. Smith, “The persistent inequities of COVID-19”
Second place: Gustavo Arellano
Third place: Patt Morrison, “Explaining LA”

Newspapers – Under 50,000 circulation

News Feature
Third place: Gabriel San Roman, Daily Pilot, “Amid new revelations, Alex Odeh’s assassination remains unsolved”

Personality Profile
Second place: Gabriel San Roman, Times OC, “How OC Weekly’s founding editor turned conservative libertarian firebrand”

Broadcast – Any Outlet – TV/Film/Radio/Podcast

Humor/Satire Writing
First place: Patt Morrison, “L.A. Times Today” on Spectrum News 1, “Patt Says: Shortages”

Public Service News or Feature
Second place: Jamie Novogrod, Leslie Lindsay, Patrick Steward, Kevin Haulihan and Andy Viner, “The California Recall”

Local Political/Government Reporting
First place: Jamie Novogrod, Kevin Haulihan, Leslie Lindsay, Patrick Steward and Andy Viner, “The California Recall”

National Political/Government Reporting
First place: Gina Pollack, Karen Foshay, Michael Ray, Joey Larson and Paul Thornton, “When Abortion Was Illegal”

Environmental Reporting
Second place: Kevin Haulihan, Andy Viner, Helki Frantzen, Karen Foshay and Paul Thornton, “Hear Me Out: A port pollution crisis”

Sports – Any News or Feature
Third place: Erik Himmelsbach-Weinstein, Mark E. Potts, Jessica Q. Chen and Steve Saldivar, “Fernandomania @ 40″

Television/Film – Broadcast, including online and cable TV, produced in Southern California

Anchor/Host
Third place: Jenn Harris, “What We’re Into”

Investigative
Third place: Albert Brave, Tiger Lee, Jorge Garcia and Robert Meeks, “The Hunt for J.P. Morgan’s Million-dollar Watch”

News Feature, under 5 minutes
Third place: Marcus Yam, Karen Foshay, Patrick Steward and Jamie Novogrod, “Withdrawal from Afghanistan”

Human Interest Feature, over 5 minutes
Second place: Yadira Flores and Erik Himmelsbach-Weinstein, “Hiking Mt. Whitney after being paralyzed”

Human Interest Feature, under 5 minutes
First place: Karen Foshay, Helki Frantzen, Andy Viner, Paul Thornton and Terry Tang, “The Fall of Saigon”

Feature Documentary, over 25 minutes
First place: Claire Hannah Collins, Albert Brave Tiger Lee, Diego Medrano, Jessica Q. Chen and Keith Bedford, “Meet the formerly incarcerated fire crew protecting California from wildfires”
Second place: Nani Sahra Walker, Cody Long, Yadira Flores and Erik Himmelsbach-Weinstein, “Alice Waters: How to start a food revolution”

Audio Journalism – Radio broadcast, podcast or stream produced in Southern California

Personality Profile/Interview – Non-Entertainment personalities, over 10 minutes
First place: Tracy Brown, Jen Yamato, Asal Ehsanipour, Abbie Fentress Swanson and Mike Heflin, “Asian Enough: Min Jin Lee interview”

Documentary – A single non-fiction program, 15 minutes or longer
First place: Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles Times, “The Trials of Frank Carson”

Online – Originally published on the internet

Culture News
First place: Andrea Castillo, “A lifeline for LGBTQ Latinos on the brink of closure”

Entertainment News on Music/Performing Arts
Second place: Anousha Sakoui, “Behind Hollywood glamour, an Instagram account highlights darker side for workers”

Pandemic Reporting
First place: Emily Baumgaertner, “From the first stitch to the final zip: The global journey of a COVID-19 body bag”

Entertainment Feature on Radio, Music, TV
First place: Danielle Broadway, “How ‘Insecure’ achieved its ‘mission’ to forge a real bond with South L.A.”
Third place: Dawn Burkes, “Canceled by HBO, ‘Lovecraft Country’ leaves its Black fans vindicated with Emmy nods”

Entertainment Commentary on TV/Film
Second place: Matt Brennan, “How two wildly different TV shows figured out how not to ignore a plague”

Entertainment Commentary on the Arts (including theater, music)
First place: Ashley Lee, “How the tragedy in ‘The Father’ taught me a surprisingly hopeful lesson about my own”

Social Media

Best use of social media to enhance and/or cover a story
First place: Marcus Yam, Karen Foshay, Patrick Steward and Jamie Novogrod, “Withdrawal from Afghanistan”

For the complete list of award recipients, visit lapressclub.org.