Three of the San Diego Community Newspaper Group’s corps of reporters earned top honors during the San Diego Press Club’s 40th annual Excellence in Journalism Awards on Oct. 29 at the Market Creek Jacobs Center. The evening was a rich mix of tradition and celebration featuring San Diego’s finest restaurants with regional wines and beers. For the honorees, it was a fun evening of rubbing elbows with friends in the San Diego media. The San Diego Press Club is the third largest in the U.S., representing all media city and county newspapers, magazines, websites, television and radio outlets.
Writer Scott Hopkins received first place in the Photography Still Feature category for “Clash of the Classes on the Gridiron” that ran in the Peninsula Beacon. He also earned a second-place award in the Non-Daily Newspapers Series category for “PLHS graduate ID’d as shooting victim in bizarre crime spree.” In addition, Hopkins shared a third-place award in the Education category for his article, “Students defuse rat race of school life with gigantic hamster wheel.”
Mike McCarthy received a first-place award in the Investigative Reporting category for the article “Teeming with life — summer marine life unusually active,” that ran in the Peninsula Beacon, Beach and Bay Press and La Jolla Today. He also received a second-place honor in the Photography Still News category for the same article. Reporter Mariko Lamb collected second-place honors for her work at the Beach & Bay Press in the non-daily newspapers Best Gardening Story category with “Young minds blossom with growth of school garden.”
“The San Diego Community Newspaper Group is honored to have Mike, Scott and Mariko on our writing staff,” said managing editor Kevin McKay. “These writers continue to produce insightful and meaningful stories and photos that provide the very snapshot of life in our beach communities we seek out every day. These honors are richly deserved,” he said.