Spring Break
R&B receives best daily paper award
BRITTANY COFER
Issue date: 4/7/09 Section: News
The Red & Black received 14 awards this weekend from the Society of Professional Journalists, and one reporter received a coveted national award for investigative reporting.
Eleven of the 14 Mark of Excellence awards were first place for the Southeast region - consisting of Georgia, Alabama, Florida and South Carolina.
The Red & Black was named best daily newspaper, a category in which it received third last year.
"It's about time we were back at No. 1," Carolyn Crist, editor-in-chief of The Red & Black, said Sunday.
Last year, the newspaper won 16 SPJ awards, five coming in first place.
"This is the most first place awards since I've been here," said Ed Morales, who has been the paper's editorial adviser for four years.
In four years the paper won best daily newspaper three times, and Morales said it is the most important SPJ category to him.
"Honestly, paper of the year is the one that we really care about," he said Monday. "That's the meaningful one, for me, because it's a showcase."
Michael Fitzpatrick, who won first place in online sports reporting with Tyler Estep for the College World Series baseball coverage, said winning the award is "a big deal."
"I'm excited," Fitzpatrick said Monday. "Both of us, we didn't really think what we did was that special, but we did the best that we could and we covered the team to the best of our abilities, and apparently some people liked what we did."
Morales said The Red & Black and its reporters received more first place awards this year than any other school received total awards.
"It's funny because a lot of people get down on us," Morales said. "This is an example of us sending our work out and people who don't live with us every day and see us every day see the work that we've done and acknowledge it."
The awards help the newspaper measure how it is doing, Morales said.
"Winning awards, if nothing else, is saying we are doing the right stuff," he said. "We're on the right track - we're putting out journalists who know what they're doing and can compete in the world."
The 11 first place pieces will go to the national competition and the top three will be announced in May. Final placements will be announced in August.
Also honored this week was Kristen Coulter, a part-time news editor and former editor-in-chief of The Red & Black, for her investigative reporting on sexual harassment in spring 2008.
Coulter received the fourth annual Betty Gage Holland Award, a national award given by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication for protecting the integrity of public dialogue on college campuses. This is the third consecutive year a reporter from The Red & Black has won the award.
"It was an honor to receive the award," Coulter said. "It is great that The Red & Black could make a such difference for the University and then later be recognized for it."
The award comes with a $2,000 prize - $1,000 going to Coulter and $1,000 going to The Red & Black.
"It's a really, really big award for us," Morales said. "And honestly for us to win it three years in a row is crazy, just because Grady's in a weird situation where they don't want to keep giving it to us every year, so our stuff has to be really good to win it."
SPJ award winners include:
Kristen Coulter and Carolyn Crist, second in breaking news reporting
Matthew Grayson, second in in-depth reporting
Brian Hughes, first in feature writing
Brian Hughes, first in sports writing
Bill Richards, first in editorial cartooning
Jason Butt, first in sports column writing
Charles Ryan Barber, first in breaking news photography
Frannie Fabian, first in general news photography
Lindy Dugger, second in photo illustration
Daniel Shirey, first in sports photography
Tyler Estep and Michael Fitzpatrick, first in online sports reporting.
SPJ awards for The Red & Black staff:
First in best all-around daily student newspaper
First in general news reporting
First in online in-depth reporting
Eleven of the 14 Mark of Excellence awards were first place for the Southeast region - consisting of Georgia, Alabama, Florida and South Carolina.
The Red & Black was named best daily newspaper, a category in which it received third last year.
"It's about time we were back at No. 1," Carolyn Crist, editor-in-chief of The Red & Black, said Sunday.
Last year, the newspaper won 16 SPJ awards, five coming in first place.
"This is the most first place awards since I've been here," said Ed Morales, who has been the paper's editorial adviser for four years.
In four years the paper won best daily newspaper three times, and Morales said it is the most important SPJ category to him.
"Honestly, paper of the year is the one that we really care about," he said Monday. "That's the meaningful one, for me, because it's a showcase."
Michael Fitzpatrick, who won first place in online sports reporting with Tyler Estep for the College World Series baseball coverage, said winning the award is "a big deal."
"I'm excited," Fitzpatrick said Monday. "Both of us, we didn't really think what we did was that special, but we did the best that we could and we covered the team to the best of our abilities, and apparently some people liked what we did."
Morales said The Red & Black and its reporters received more first place awards this year than any other school received total awards.
"It's funny because a lot of people get down on us," Morales said. "This is an example of us sending our work out and people who don't live with us every day and see us every day see the work that we've done and acknowledge it."
The awards help the newspaper measure how it is doing, Morales said.
"Winning awards, if nothing else, is saying we are doing the right stuff," he said. "We're on the right track - we're putting out journalists who know what they're doing and can compete in the world."
The 11 first place pieces will go to the national competition and the top three will be announced in May. Final placements will be announced in August.
Also honored this week was Kristen Coulter, a part-time news editor and former editor-in-chief of The Red & Black, for her investigative reporting on sexual harassment in spring 2008.
Coulter received the fourth annual Betty Gage Holland Award, a national award given by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication for protecting the integrity of public dialogue on college campuses. This is the third consecutive year a reporter from The Red & Black has won the award.
"It was an honor to receive the award," Coulter said. "It is great that The Red & Black could make a such difference for the University and then later be recognized for it."
The award comes with a $2,000 prize - $1,000 going to Coulter and $1,000 going to The Red & Black.
"It's a really, really big award for us," Morales said. "And honestly for us to win it three years in a row is crazy, just because Grady's in a weird situation where they don't want to keep giving it to us every year, so our stuff has to be really good to win it."
SPJ award winners include:
Kristen Coulter and Carolyn Crist, second in breaking news reporting
Matthew Grayson, second in in-depth reporting
Brian Hughes, first in feature writing
Brian Hughes, first in sports writing
Bill Richards, first in editorial cartooning
Jason Butt, first in sports column writing
Charles Ryan Barber, first in breaking news photography
Frannie Fabian, first in general news photography
Lindy Dugger, second in photo illustration
Daniel Shirey, first in sports photography
Tyler Estep and Michael Fitzpatrick, first in online sports reporting.
SPJ awards for The Red & Black staff:
First in best all-around daily student newspaper
First in general news reporting
First in online in-depth reporting
Viewing Comments 1 - 6 of 7
Mandi
posted 4/07/09 @ 1:03 PM EST
:)
Rex
posted 4/07/09 @ 5:13 PM EST
Was Helen Keller giving the awards? The stuff I read is crap.
your worst nightmare
posted 4/07/09 @ 5:34 PM EST
michael fitzpatrick is a joke...he just rode to tyler's work to that award
NooNoo
posted 4/07/09 @ 6:18 PM EST
I'm surprised anyone got any awards with McAffee dragging the whole paper down.
R&B
posted 4/07/09 @ 8:02 PM EST
As a transfer from another school, most of the students at UGA have no idea how lucky they are to have a newspaper at all...much less one like R&B does for the school. (Continued…)
ha
posted 4/07/09 @ 9:24 PM EST
the red and black has to write an article about how they win stuff so they can continue to try and convince us they are respectable. but all you have to do to disprove their integrity is take a look at the articles. (Continued…)
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