Valley Sun wins statewide journalism honors

The La Cañada Valley Sun will be honored in April by the California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA) for spot-on coverage of the February 2010 mudslides that damaged hillside homes in the wake of the 2009 Station fire.

Not only is the Valley Sun nominated for a first- or second-place award in the Local Breaking News category of CNPA’s statewide Better Newspapers Contest, the paper also received several other nods for exceptional news and sports coverage last year among California weekly publications of 4,300 to 11,000 circulation.

The paper’s mudslide coverage was led by reporter Megan O’Neil, who now works out of the Valley Sun’s sister publication, the Glendale News-Press.

Certificates of Achievement — awarded to third- and fourth- place finishers in each category — honored sports coverage (including the work of staff writer Andrew Shortall), writing (for a story by O’Neil about mudslide cleanup efforts) and business or financial coverage (for O’Neil’s May 2010 of Allen Lund Co. employee Phillip Amador’s rise to success despite personal adversity).

Final contest results will be announced April 16 at the Wilshire Grand Los Angeles hotel during CNPA’s annual Press Summit.