Giffels, Dyer wins honors as columnists

Reprinted from today's Beacon Journal

Giffels, Dyer win national honors

Beacon Journal writers among best columnists

Beacon Journal staff report
Two Beacon Journal columnists have been recognized by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists as the best in the country.

David Giffels was named second best in the nation. Bob Dyer placed third.

They were judged based on their collection of work in 2007.

According to the judges, ''David Giffels is a very close second in this contest. He is extremely thoughtful, and his work is clearly well-reported. His voice is smooth, his writing eloquent and polished. And he has a wonderful sense of irony, which he subtly and effectively uses to lure readers into his columns.''

As for Dyer, the judges observed ''Bob Dyer's winning entries show that Akron is blessed with at least two very strong columnists. His writing has just enough sarcastic bite to sound like the best story teller at the bar, or the one who holds court at the high-school football games on Friday nights. He's conversational. He knows what's going on in town, some of it right under our noses, and he's the one who says: 'Hey, will you get a load of this?' ''

Susan Campbell of the Hartford Courant won first.