BJ wins Society of Professional Journalist awards

The Beacon Journal won three first place awards in the Society of Professional Journalists competition for newspapers over 100,000.

They were for criminal justice reporting of the Jessie Marie Davis murder by the staff, Betty-Lin Fisher for a business profile “Smucker Family Preserves” and Bob Downing for environmental coverage of the Countywide Landfill fire.

Other winners:

• Second place, criminal justice reporting — Ed Meyer for Gondor, Resh Leave Jail.
• Second place, headline writing — Kim Drezdzon.
• Second place, human interest writing — John Higgins for Basketball Plus: A Winning Equation.
• Second place, sports profile — Marla Ridenour, Glimpses of Greg Oden.
• Second place, Web site — Ohio.com staff.
• Third place, best critic in Ohio — Rich Heldenfels.

The honorees will get awards at a ceremony at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in October.

Click on the headline to read the Beacon Journal story on Ohio.com. The story was published Monday on page B2