Times Wins 14 1st-Place Awards

The Los Angeles Times won 14 first-place awards Saturday at the Greater Los Angeles Press Club Southern California Journalism Awards, including the award for overall excellence in newspapers with a circulation over 100,000.

The Times also won 20 awards of excellence at the ceremony, held at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. In addition, Times columnist Bill Boyarsky was awarded the Joseph M. Quinn Memorial Award for career achievement.

The Torrance-based Daily Breeze also won 14 first-place awards and 20 awards of excellence in the competition.

Work originating in the Valley Edition of The Times won six of the paper’s first-place plaques and eight awards of excellence.

During the event, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Hume Kennerly, now a Newsweek contributing editor, was given the Press Club’s President’s Award for journalistic excellence.

Among broadcast news organizations, KNX-AM radio garnered the most awards, with seven first-place plaques and seven awards of excellence. KCBS-TV won four first-place plaques, the most for a television station.

Other top print winners were the LA Weekly with 10 first-place awards, and Leader Newspapers and the Glendale News-Press, both owned by Times-Mirror, publisher of The Times, with nine first-place plaques, and the Long Beach Press Telegram with eight first-place awards. The Daily News won one first-place plaque and one award of excellence.

The competition was judged by press clubs throughout the country. Many of the newspaper categories were split into divisions based on circulation size.

The Los Angeles Times winners included:

* Continuing story or series: Richard Simon and Jon D. Markman for coverage of the MTA. Receiving an award of excellence was the staff of The Times for “Unsolved Murders.”

* Spot news coverage: Award of excellence to The Times’ financial news staff for coverage of Boeing’s acquisition of Douglas.

* Investigative reporting--single subject: John M. Glionna and Irfan Khan of the Valley Edition for their stories and photos about people victimized by alleged land fraud in the High Desert. Receiving an award of excellence was the staff of The Times for “Unsolved Murders.”

* Investigative reporting--body of work: Eric Lichtblau, Paul Feldman, Dave Ferrell, Josh Meyer and Ralph Frammolino for stories about the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the jail system it runs.

* News writing--general news: Martha L. Willman of the Valley Edition for a story about a Saugus couple’s struggle to get their children back from county welfare officials.

* Feature reporting: Sandy Banks of the Valley Edition.

* Entertainment reporting: Sharon Bernstein and Robert Welkos for stories about the hazards of motion-picture stunt work. Award of excellence to David Wharton of the Valley Edition.

* Entertainment reviews: Kenneth Turan. Award of excellence to Robert Hilburn.

* Sports reporting--single story: Chris Dufresne. Award of excellence to David Wharton of the Valley Edition.

* Sports reporting--body of work: Award of excellence to Bill Plaschke.

* Business news reporting: Award of excellence to James Bates, Claudia Eller, James Flanigan, Elaine Dutka and Martha Groves.

* Specialty feature reporting--body of work: Paul Dean.

* Columns--body of work: In the government, election category, first place to Scott Harris of the Valley Edition and award of excellence to Bill Boyarsky. In the local events, society category, first place to Robert A. Jones and award of excellence to Richard Simon. Award of excellence for sports category to Bill Plaschke. Award of excellence in the personal, observational category to Peter H. King.

* Editorials: Award of excellence to Gayle Pollard Terry and Nancy Yoshihara.

* Headline writing: Heather Stewart. Award of excellence to John Gallant of the Valley Edition.

* Layout: Award of excellence to Steve Mitchell, Les Dunseith and Lorena Iniquez.

* Spot news photo: Award of excellence to the Valley Edition’s Boris Yaro for a picture of a worker stuck in a palm tree.

* General news photo: Award of excellence to the Valley Edition’s Brian Vander Brug for a picture of an animal rights protest.

* Sports action photo/audio: Alexander Gallardo.

* Feature photography/audio/videography: Award of excellence to the Valley Edition’s Jill Connelly.

* Photo Essay: First-place award to Gerard Burkhart of the Valley Edition for a photo essay on the cleanup of Tujunga Wash. Award of excellence to Irfan Khan of the Valley Edition for photos illustrating people involved in alleged land fraud in the Antelope Valley.