Times Honored in APSE Contest

The Times placed in the top 10 in daily and Sunday sections competition, and earned honorable mention for special sections in the large-paper circulation category of the annual Associated Press Sports Editors national contest.

In judging that concluded Wednesday, The Times also had three staff writers place in the top 10 in writing categories: Bill Plaschke for columns, Jason Reid for breaking news and Alan Abrahamson for explanatory journalism.

The Kansas City Star and Boston Globe led the way among papers with circulations of 250,000 or more. Both sports staffs won APSE’s triple crown -- placing in the top 10 for daily, Sunday and special sections.

Star columnist Joe Posnanski earned top-10 placement in four categories: column writing, project reporting, features and game story.

The section judging is final, and papers in the top 10 will receive awards at APSE’s national convention in Philadelphia in June. Writing finalists will undergo another round of judging and be ranked one through five with honorable mentions.

The Orange County Register received honorable mention in the large-paper category in daily and Sunday sections, and staff writers Marcia Smith and Heather Lourie placed in the top 10 for breaking news. Register reporters Scott Reid, Tony Saavedra and William Heisel placed in the top 10 for investigative stories among all papers.

In the 100,000-250,000 circulation category, the Daily News of Los Angeles earned honorable mention for Sunday sections, and columnist Tom Hoffarth was among the top 10 columnists. The Riverside Press-Enterprise earned honorable mention for daily sections.

Other writing honors went to Joe Curley of the Ventura Star for project writing in the 40,000-100,000 category, and Brian Golden of the Antelope Valley Press for column writing in papers with circulations under 40,000. The Ventura Star received honorable mention for Sunday sections.