Times Wins 2 First-Place Awards From Press Club

The San Diego County Edition of The Times won two first-place writing awards from the San Diego Press Club at a ceremony held Tuesday night at the Mission Valley Marriott Hotel.

For their stories on the March bombing of Sharon Rogers’ van, Times reporters Leonard Bernstein, Richard Serrano, Anthony Perry and Tom Gorman picked up the top award for best news coverage by a team of reporters.

Theater critic Nancy Churnin also garnered a first-place award for her arts story on casting minorities in non-traditional roles in the theater. Times reporter Armando Acuna received a second-place award in the arts category.

Times photographer Vince Compagnone took second place in the Press Club category of best sports photo.

The San Diego Tribune garnered eight top writing and photography awards, including best news story by a single reporter and best staff-written editorial. The San Diego Union won five first-place writing and photography awards for newspapers with a circulation of 100,000 or more.

Top winners for newspapers with a circulation of less than 100,000 included Christi Phelps of the San Diego Business Journal for best business/financial writing; Kevin Brass for The Source for best sportswriting and Rocky Rushing of the Oceanside Blade-Tribune for best investigative reporting.

Judges for this year’s contest were the Orange County Press Club and the Peninsula Press Club in the San Francisco Bay Area.