Times Wins a Record 68 Press Club Awards

Staff writers from The Times Orange County won a record 68 Orange County Press Club awards, including the most prestigious prize, at the club’s 41st annual awards ceremony Sunday night. Among the paper’s prizes were 23 first-place awards.

The Press Club bestowed special honors on former Times op-ed editor Don Angel, who received the Sky Dunlap Award for career excellence and contribution to the Orange County community. Angel, 65, retired last summer after 32 years with The Times.

The Orange County Register earned 21 awards, nine of them first-place honors, including the investigative award. Other local publications honored were OC Weekly, Orange Coast Magazine and OC Metro.

Times staff writer Mark Platte won the press club’s top honor, the Watchdog Award, for excellence in reporting about public officials. Platte documented how Orange County’s tollway agencies rewarded its top executives with numerous raises, bonuses and perks despite the toll roads being substantially over budget and behind schedule.

Judges from Investigative Reporters and Editors at the University of Missouri said Platte “uncovered big bonuses, loans and other perks for executives, a lack of accountability and regulation and similar offenses that tend to occur when there are no watchdogs.”

Times graphics illustrator Val B. Mina picked up two first-place awards, one for illustration graphic and one for illustration portfolio. Times photographer Rick Loomis also took home two first-place awards for photo portfolio and best portrait.

The Times took five of six awards in the general excellence categories, including first-place trophies for its coverage last year of the state Senate subcommittee hearings into the Orange County bankruptcy and its yearlong investigation of how prosecutions are handled by the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Times staff writers picked up first-place awards in a number of categories. Tracy Weber, Michael G. Wagner and Matt Lait won for daily news story, Renee Tawa for best profile, John O’Dell for daily beat coverage, Stephen Burgard for best editorial and Don Lee and Debora Vrana for best project. Thao Hua received the David McQuay Award for column/commentary.

Times copy editors also took top honors. Carrie Barber won for best headline, Mike Kirkendall for layout portfolio, Maria Laso Elders for headline portfolio, and Janice Jones for graphics reporting/research.

The Times won 17 of 19 photography awards. First-place winners were Mark Boster for daily feature photo, Kari Rene Hall for sports photo, Karen Tapia for photo illustration, Gail Fisher for photo essay, and former staffer Craig Wallace Chapman for daily news photo.

*

Former County CEO William J. Popejoy served as the master of ceremonies for the event Sunday at the Doubletree Hotel in Orange.

The Register earned top honors in the investigative category for its stories disclosing alleged fraudulent and unethical practices at UC Irvine’s Center for Reproductive Health. The newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for the series earlier this month. The chief reporters on the story were Susan Kelleher, Kim Christensen, Michelle Nicolosi, David Parrish and Ernie Slone.

Other Register first-place winners were Katie Hickox for daily feature story, Kelly Barron and Edmund Sanders for best business story, Andre Mouchard for sports story, Jeff Kramer for humor story, George Turney and Chris Boucly for informational graphics, and Turney again for infographics portfolio.

Terry Brown of the Huntington Beach Wave won the best weekly beat coverage award, and Suzanne Mapes of the Newport Beach Light won for weekly feature photo. Both publications are owned by the Register.

Kedric Francis of OC Metro won for best weekly news story; David Weddle of OC Weekly won for weekly feature story; Tom Vasich of the OC Weekly won for his review/criticism piece; and Susan Paterno of the OC Weekly won for best magazine story.

The press club also awarded $1,000 in scholarships to six local college students. The winners were selected from 40 students who attended a mock news conference and wrote a news story on deadline several weeks before.

Chris Ceballos of Rancho Santiago College won first place and $300 in the two-year college competition, while Patrice Wirth of Chapman University won $300 for four-year colleges.

Monica Hernandez of Rancho Santiago College and Andrew Gayton of Cal State Fullerton each won $150 for second place. Sekhar Nabhan of Orange Coast College and Matthew Miller of Chapman University each received $50 for third place.

In the public relations category, Michelle Petersen of Sara Schantz Public Relations won best news release; Dorothy Jean of Dorothy Jean Public Relations won for feature release; Sara Schantz of Sara Schantz Public Relations won for media kit; Jessica Spaulding of Amies Communications won for best internal publication; and John Standiford of the Orange County Transportation Authority won for best external publication.

*

Runner-up awards were:

General Excellence (Breaking News): second- and third-place awards to The Times.

General Excellence (Project, Package, Series or Special Section): second to The Times and third to the Register.

News story (Daily): second to H.G. Reza and third to Don Lee, both of The Times.

News story (Weekly): second to Will Swaim and third to Nick Schou, both of OC Weekly.

Feature story (Daily): second to Gordon Dillow of the Register, with a third-place tie between Lee Romney and J.R. Moehringer of The Times. Honorable mentions went to Leslie Earnest and Renee Tawa, both of The Times.

Feature story (Weekly): second to Patrick Mott of OC Metro.

Profile: second to Dennis McLellan and third to Shelby Grad, both of The Times.

Business story: second to Julie Marquis of The Times and third to Chris Woodyard, formerly of The Times.

Sportswriting: second to Chris Foster of The Times, with a third-place tie between Jason Reid of The Times and Allison Joyce of Orange Coast Magazine. Honorable mentions went to Lon Eubanks of The Times and Patrick Mott of OC Metro.

Review/Criticism: second to Paul Hodgins of the Register and third to Cathy Curtis of The Times.

Column/Commentary: second to Thomas Curwen and third to Mike Terry, both of The Times.

Humor: second to Anne Valdespino of the Register and third to Steve Lowery of OC Weekly.

Magazine story: second to Dawn Bonker and third to Thomas Curwen, both of Orange Coast Magazine.

Project (Series or One-Day Package): second to Rebecca Trounson, Lily Dizon, H.G. Reza, Lisa Richardson and Michael G. Wagner of The Times and third to Lee Romney, Rebecca Trounson, Ching-Ching Ni, Tina Nguyen, Lily Dizon, David Haldane, Geoff Boucher and Catherine Gewertz of The Times.

Beat Coverage (Daily): second to Andre Mouchard of the Register and third to Debora Vrana of The Times.

Editorial: second to John Needham of The Times and third to Matt Coker of OC Weekly.

Headline: second to Maria Laso Elders and third to Rick VanderKnyff, both of The Times.

Headline Portfolio: second to Martin J. Smith of Orange Coast Magazine and third to Rick VanderKnyff of The Times.

Single Page Layout: second to Kirk Christ of The Times, with a third-place tie between Don Tormey of The Times and Curt Seeden of the Register.

Layout Portfolio: second to George Foulsham and third to Carrie Barber, both of The Times.

Graphics Reporting/Research: second to Mary Zisk of the Register and third to Tom Reinken of The Times.

Informational Graphics: second to David Puckett of The Times and third to George Turney of the Register.

Illustration Graphic: second to Mary Zisk of the Register and third to Doris Shields of The Times.

Infographics Portfolio: second to Mary Zisk of the Register and third to Scott Brown of The Times.

Illustration Portfolio: second to George Turney of the Register and third to Dennis Lowe of The Times.

News Photo (Daily): second to Mark Boster of The Times.

Feature Photo (Daily): second to Robert Lachman of The Times and third to Craig Wallace Chapman, formerly of The Times.

Sports Photo: second to Karen Tapia of The Times and third to Eugene Garcia of the Register.

Portrait: second to Christine Cotter and third to Don Bartletti, both of The Times.

Photo Illustration: second to Mark Boster and third to Rick Loomis, both of The Times.

Photo Portfolio: second to Mark Boster and third to Karen Tapia, both of The Times.

News Release: second to Ruth Wardwell of Chapman University and third to Dorothy Jean of the Seniors Housing Council.

Feature Release: second to Ruth Wardwell and third to Cathi Douglas, both of Chapman University.

External Publication: second to Jennifer Peters of the California Arboretum Foundation and third to Susan Menning of UCI Communications.