John Dougherty's "Polygamy in Arizona" investigation for Phoenix New Times won first place in the Nondaily Newspaper category of the 2006 Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism, it was announced today. The awards honor distinguished coverage of disadvantaged children and families. The judges wrote that Dougherty's series "was a tough story to get and the New Times should be applauded for stepping in where authorities failed to go." An honorable mention was given to Jonathan Kaminsky of East Bay Express for "Wounded Warriors," which the judges called "an insightful, unflinching look at a football team in a bleak neighborhood."
The prestigious James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards were announced Monday at an awards reception in New York (which was hosted by none other than AAN's favorite speaker, Cokie Roberts) and four Village Voice Media writers were awarded first-place medallions. Jonathan Kauffman of East Bay Express, Jonathan Gold of LA Weekly, Kristen Hinman of Riverfront Times, and Dara Moskowitz of City Pages triumphed in four of the seven categories in which alt-weeklies were eligible to participate. And one of the other winners -- The Times-Picayune's Brett Anderson -- formerly did his writing in the pages of the Washington City Paper.
Foodies at Creative Loafing (Atlanta), Riverfront Times, Westword, L.A. Weekly, East Bay Express, City Pages (Twin Cities), Phoenix New Times, and Houston Press picked up ten of the 21 nominations for which they qualified in the 2006 James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards announced today. The complete list is available as a PDF here. Alt-weeklies were particularly dominant in the "Newspaper Writing on Spirits, Wine or Beer" category, in which all three nominees are AAN members. The awards recognize and honor excellence and achievement in the culinary arts.
The impetus behind the walkout was apparently a refusal by the newspaper's publishers to print the Danish cartoons that caricature Muhammad and have caused protests and riots in several countries. In an e-mail to the New York Observer, editor in chief Harry Siegel explained that "the editorial group -- consisting of myself, managing editor Tim Marchman, arts editor Jonathan Leaf and one-man city hall bureau Azi Paybarah ... have no desire to be free speech martyrs, but it would have been nakedly hypocritical to avoid the same cartoons we'd criticized others for not running." Siegel went on to say that he had long dreamed of running the Press, thought that the staff had "come quite a ways in only a few months towards restoring the paper's tarnished editorial reputation and credibility," and hoped "that under new ownership and leadership it can again be an invaluable read for all good Gothamites."
Alt-weeklies walked away with half of the 18 winning entries in the under-150,000 circulation category of the Association of Food Journalists awards announced last week. New Times foodies at Dallas Observer, SF Weekly and Riverfront Times each picked up a first-place prize, while Houston Press' Robb Walsh took home both a first- and second-place. Independent Weekly, Creative Loafing-Atlanta and Willamette Week were the other AAN winners in the AFJ's small-paper category. LA Weekly's Jonathan Gold, who won first-place in this year's AltWeekly Awards Food Writing category (Walsh placed second), also won first-place for Restaurant Criticism in the AFJ contest, in the 150,001-300,000 circulation category.
