BJ dominates second place in SPJ awards

The Akron Beacon Journal and its website, Ohio.com did not win any first place awards from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists this year, but they won eight second place awards. Former staff writers in bold type below shared in two of those second place awards.

Included in the second place awards was best deadline reporting by the staff for Fire at the Airdock.

The Cincinnati Inquirer, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cleveland Scene and Columbus Dispatch each won five first place awards, the Dayton Daily News and Toledo Blade each won two and the Associated Press tied with Cleveland Scene for a first place on sports coverage.

The awards were for work last year in the over-100,000 circulation division for newspapers: An awards luncheon will be at noon Oct. 27 at Confluence Park Restaurant, 679 W. Spring St., Columbus.

Best headline was “Tortilla Flat” by Erich Burnett of Cleveland Scene. Here art the four others won by Cleveland Scene:

Denise Grollmus for best arts reporting “The Great Pretenders”
Elaine Cicora for best arts profile “Soul Kitchen”
Erich Burnett for best headline writer “Tortilla Flat”
LisaRab for best newsmaker profile “Fa;ll of the Fourth Reich”
Joe Tone for best sports coverage “Man on Fire”
Tie with Associate Press for Ohio State Championship

Here are the Beacon Journal awards:

Staff writer Tracy Wheeler and former staff writer Elizabeth Suh tied for second place in the best medical/science reporting category for Deadly Admissions: Hospital-acquired Infections are Fourth Largest Killer in Ohio.

Wheeler, Suh, staff writer Cheryl Powell and former staff writer Kathy Spitz won second place for best coverage of minority issues for The Great Health Divide.

Former staff writer Kymberli Hagelberg tied for second for best government coverage for To the Victors Go the Jobs? The story looked at nepotism within Summit County government.

Staff writer Carl Chancellor won second for best newsmaker profile for an article about Mike DeWine.

Former sports columnist Terry Pluto tied for second for best sports profile for an article about Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert.

Staff writer Elaine Guregian won second for best arts reporting for Last Dance, which looked at the decline of the Ohio Ballet.

The newspaper won second place for best Web site, www.ohio.com. Cleveland.com got the top spot.

Click on the headline for a complete list of the awards.