Dyer on #1 treadmill

It wouldn’t be a Cleveland Press Club Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards if the BJ’s Bob Dyer wasn’t named best columnist. The 2017 first for my former Blue Room lunch partner, I think, puts him in double digits, or close to it.

Since joining the Akron Beacon Journal in 1984, Bob Dyer has earned 51 regional and national writing awards by 2014 and was Best Columnist in Ohio for seven consecutive years. In 2008, he was voted Best Columnist in the Nation and in 2013 he was voted Best Humor Columnist in the nation by the National Society of Professional Journalists. A native of suburban Cleveland, Dyer was one of the lead writers for "A Question of Color," a year-long examination of racial attitudes in Akron that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994. He came to Ol’ Blue Walls from the Wooster Daily Record.

BJ Cavs reporter Marla Ridenour was named best sports columnist in Ohio.

Other first-place winners were Mary Beth Breckenridge (lifestyle), Stephanie Warsmith (obituary), Rick Steinhauser (illustration), Paula Schleis (general news), Michael Chritton (general and sports photography), Mike Cardew (feature photography) and Phil Masturzo (studio and portrait photography).

Cleveland Plain Dealer was named #1 newspaper with the BJ #2.