Great showing at the San Diego Press Club’s annual Journalism of Excellence Awards positions CityBEAT as the most honored non-daily newspaper in the county

San Diego CityBeat was honored 13 times for outstanding work Oct. 15 at the San Diego Press Club’s annual Journalism of Excellence Awards ceremony, and the paper’s rambunctious contingent was admonished only once for rowdy behavior during the otherwise sedate event.

CityBeat’s biggest winner was contributing editor John R. Lamb, who bagged three first place plaques—for best column (“Spin Cycle”), best Business, Financial and Tech story (“Fallen Falcon,” on John Moores and the downfall of his Peregrine Systems Inc.) and best Profile (“Surfer Girl,” a feature on City Councilmember Donna Frye).

Most of CityBeat’s awards came in competition with other non-daily newspapers.

Associate editor Kelly Davis also won three awards. She garnered first place in Investigative Reporting for “Portrait of an Eviction,” about the plight of the residents ordered to vacate downtown’s Maryland Hotel. Davis pulled in a second place in Political/Government reporting for “Things Change,” her story about the rising political power of San Diego’s gay community. And she got third place in Education reporting for “Who’s to Blame,” her story about troubles at Morse High School.

Contributor Victor A. Patton was honored twice for “Escape from Terror,” his piece about Sudanese refugees living in San Diego. The story won first place in the Feature category and Best in Show among all submissions from non-daily newspapers.

Contributor Shane Liddick won first place in Sports reporting for his compelling profile, “The Boxer,” about young fighter Yuko Andino. Liddick also won second place in Multicultural coverage—against all competition—for “The Story of America,” his report on El Cajon’s Iraqi Chaldean population.

Editor David Rolland won two awards—second place in Science, Health & Medicine for “Toxic Town,” his story about air pollution in Barrio Logan; and third place in Essay/Commentary/Opinion for his editorial, “John Moores is a Big Baby.”

And arts and entertainment editor Troy Johnson won a third place award in, strangely enough, Arts & Entertainment reporting for “Pop Stars,” his feature on Japanese music act Puffy Amiyumi.

Also, two CityBeat contributors won awards for stories written for other papers. Steve Mayberry, who is CityBeat’s regular restaurant reviewer, won second place in the Feature category for the La Jolla Light for his story, “A Town Divided.” He also won third place in Business, Financial, Tech, again for the La Jolla Light, for his story, “Raising the Bar.” And contributor Ilana Mignon took first place honors in the Series category for “Sexual Predators,” which she wrote for The Coast News in North County.

All told, CityBeat, which has been publishing since Aug. 21, 2002, was the most honored non-daily newspaper in San Diego.

For information contact Editor David Rolland, editor@SDcitybeat.com