Times design, art and photo staffs honored
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The Times’ design, photography, graphics and magazine art direction departments received top honors Monday in two international journalism competitions.
The Times received 100 total awards in the Society for News Design best of design creative competition, the most of any publication. It is the sixth time in seven years that The Times has earned the top spot (the other finish being for second place).
And the visual journalism department won premier honors in the 67th annual Pictures of the Year International competition. The staff set the gold standard for picture editing by earning the Angus McDougall Overall Excellence in Editing Award. The judges praised The Times’ work for ‘its consistent approach and dedication to photojournalism in both print and multimedia.’ This marks the fifth time in seven years The Times has won this award.
‘We are pleased to be recognized by our peers for what our readers expect of us each and every day: imaginative, creative display of first-rate journalism, which includes outstanding visual and audio storytelling,’ Editor Russ Stanton said.
Highlights of the SND awards include:
-- A silver medal for Kelli Sullivan’s individual design portfolio, the only medal given for news design portfolio.
-- A silver medal for staff photo portfolio, the only medal awarded for staff photo portfolio.
-- Two silver medals for LA: The Los Angeles Times Magazine -- one for the Oscars issue cover and one for a cover illustration of Gustavo Dudamel.
-- A silver medal for coverage of Michael Jackson’s death and funeral.
Other honors include awards of excellence for coverage of the 2009 Oscars, the inauguration of Barack Obama, the fall arts preview, the NBA Finals, the Station fire, the mortgage meltdown and Movie Sneaks, to name several.
‘I think our success reflects how well rounded we are as a news organization,’ said Michael Whitley, assistant managing editor for design. ‘It’s not just about having a great design department or graphics department or photo staff. It’s about great content told using all the tools available. Really well written, well edited stories are the cornerstone of what we do. Our reporters, editors and copy editors play a huge role in this. It’s really about the complete package of how we tell stories, and that is what I think SND recognizes in our work.’
In the Pictures of the Year International awards, the staff won four other first-place honors:
-- Portfolio, newspaper editing, for a large body of work.
-- Issue reporting, newspaper editing, for ‘The Rebels on the Mountain.’
-- Issue reporting, multimedia, for ‘A Boy’s Struggles’ by Liz O. Baylen. Liz also won three other multimedia awards.
-- Issue reporting, picture story, newspaper, for ‘Frozen Land, Forgotten People’ by Barbara Davidson. This magnificent piece of work also earned a Judges’ Special Recognition citation.
‘I am thrilled with the recognition from the Pictures of the Year International,’ said Deputy Managing Editor Colin Crawford. ‘Winning the Angus McDougall award and the other awards in photography, editing and multimedia is a true honor and a tribute to the talented visual journalists here at the L.A. Times.’
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