SDUN Staff Reports
“We are especially pleased with these honors because this contest was for entries published in 2009 and we didn’t launch Uptown News until halfway through that year,” said David Mannis, SDUN publisher. “It is very gratifying to have this affirmation at our one-year anniversary.”
Ron James, SDUN’s recently retired editor-in-chief, garnered a Best of Show/Non-Daily Reporting and Writing award and First Place/Non-Daily Arts and Entertainment award for his piece “Luminous Views” about Golden Hill artist Michael James Slattery.
Illustrator Court Jones won Best of Show/Newspaper Design, Photography & Headlines and First Place/Original Illustration or Drawing for his caricature of George Pernicano to accompany the story “Eyesore—Why does George Pernicano drive Hillcrest folks crazy?”
James’ “Uptown in Transition,” about the challenges of operating businesses in a weak economy, earned a first place award for business writing. His opinion/editorial denouncing the Westboro Baptist Church’s visit to San Diego, “Protesting hate on a Friday afternoon,” received a second place award.
Other first place awards for SDUN included Online/Design for the newspaper’s website, sduptownnews.com, and Newspaper Special Section for a staff collaboration on “The word on the bird,” a Thanksgiving feature.
Graphic designer Ken Pagano received two second-place awards: one in the News Design/Non-Daily/Single Page category for the newspaper’s front page from its first edition on June 29, 2009, and another for “The word on the bird” in the Feature Design/Single Page/Non-Daily category.
SPJ’s San Diego chapter presented 210 awards in 126 different categories of print, broadcast, online and college media at the event. The group received 634 entries, which were judged by SPJ chapters outside California.
A national organization, the Society of Professional Journalists was founded in 1909 to encourage the free practice of journalism and to stimulate high standards of ethical behavior.
