L.A. Weekly took home several L.A. Press Club Awards for its editorial, design and social media work. OC Weekly and Pasadena Weekly also came away as winners.
The Los Angeles Press Club held its annual SoCal Journalism Awards last night and four AAN papers went home with honors.
The Los Angeles Press Club has announced the finalists for its 52nd Annual Southern California Journalism Awards, and four AAN members and one alt-weekly affiliated columnist are in the running this year. LA Weekly has 23 finalists in 14 categories, including Journalist of the Year (Patrick Range McDonald and Christine Pelisek), Entertainment Journalist (Scott Foundas), Designer (Darrick Rainey) and Online Journalist (Dennis Romero). OC Weekly has five finalists in five categories, including Journalist of the Year (R. Scott Moxley) and Designer (Kelly Lewis). The Pasadena Weekly has seven finalists in six categories, and the Ventura County Reporter has one finalist. Meanwhile, Advice Goddess Amy Alkon is a finalist for five awards, including Journalist of the Year. Winners will be announced on June 27.
The California Newspaper Publishers Association recently gave out 480 first and second place awards in its 2009 Better Newspapers contest, and nine alt-weeklies received at least one. The Sacramento News & Review won ten awards, including firsts for Public Service, Columns, Sports Story, Front Page, Freedom of Information. SF Weekly won seven awards, including first-place finishes for Writing, Investigative/Enterprise Reporting and Environmental/Ag Resource Reporting. The North Coast Journal won six awards, including firsts in the Writing, Local News Coverage, Business/Financial Story and Environmental/Ag Resource Reporting categories. Palo Alto Weekly took home five awards -- all first-place wins -- in the Editorial Comment, Local News Coverage, Sports Coverage, Feature Photo, Best Website and General Excellence categories. Chico News & Review won two awards, both firsts, for Editorial Pages and Special Issue. Pacific Sun also took home two awards, both firsts, for Feature Story and Lifestyle Coverage. Metro Silicon Valley, Pasadena Weekly and the San Francisco Bay Guardian each took home one award.
Carl Kozlowski, who is also a stand-up comic, is the co-creator and host of "Grand Theft Audio: The Jake, Brant & Carl Show," a weekly comedy show that launched in July on internet radio station LA Talk Radio.
This week's issue includes columns by former owner Jim Laris and current editor Kevin Uhrich, who has been with the paper since 1996. There's also a timeline and a series of short reminisces from a number of alumni, including former LA Reader owner James Vowell and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Steve Coll, the paper's first editor.
The Weekly, competing with other large-circulation newspapers, won a total of 13 awards in the annual competition sponsored by the LA Press Club. Staff writer Christine Pelisek had a big night, winning first-place honors for Feature, Hard News and Investigative/Series (where she also received an Honorable Mention). Pelisek also finished second for Journalist of the Year. The Weekly placed first in three additional categories: Columnist, Entertainment News or Feature and Political Coverage. Syndicated "Advice Goddess" columnist Amy Alkon also took home a first-place win for Headline Writing in the large-circ category. Amongst the smaller papers, three AAN members were recognized for their work. OC Weekly won three first-place awards, for Design, Entertainment News or Feature and Entertainment Reviews/Criticism/Column. Pasadena Weekly won three awards, and the late LA CityBeat won one.
Deputy editor Joe Piasecki was chosen last month for the Annenberg Fellowship at the University of Southern California, which requires two semesters of study in USC's graduate-level Specialized Journalism program and includes a $20,000 stipend. In addition, a number of Pasadena Weekly writers, along with scribes from sister papers LA CityBeat and Ventura County Weekly, have been been nominated for the Los Angeles Press Club's 51st Annual Southern California Journalism Awards. L.A. Weekly and OC Weekly also have a large number of nominees in the awards contest.
Noting that Los Angeles CityBeat was "pretty much birthed here in the offices of the Pasadena Weekly," Kevin Uhrich looks back at the life of his Southland Publishing sister paper, which folded last week. He also asks the obvious question: Could the same fate befall the Weekly? "I don't think so," he writes. "However, I can say with some certainty -- just by virtue of being on staff with one of the few papers still upright on a rapidly diminishing print media landscape -- that if that day ever comes, there will probably be no newspapers around anymore to note our passing."
Pasadena police say they arrested a 26-year-old man on suspicion of grand theft yesterday. They think he's responsible for stealing 18 Pasadena Weekly news boxes over the past few months. The boxes, which are bolted to the ground, may have been stolen for their metal, cops say. MORE: In other thievery news, Las Vegas CityLife reports that a bill is being considered in Nevada that would make taking more than 10 copies of a free newspaper a misdemeanor.
