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Pioneer Press earns top awards from Illinois Press Association
Updated: June 19, 2012 4:59PM
Pioneer Press newspapers took top awards Friday at the Illinois Press Association annual awards presentation in Springfield.
Oak Leaves, edited by Jennifer Clark, won the sweepstakes award for best newspaper in its division.
First-place awards include:
Brett Johnson and his staff at La Grange Doings for General Excellence.
Karen Berkowitz of Glenview Announcements for Best School Board Coverage.
Todd Shields and Dan Luedert of Oak Leaves for Best Web Project.
Meg Moore of Glenview Announcements for Lifestyle Section.
Lenore Krasner of Skokie Review for Single Page Design.
Irv Leavitt for his Unemployee series.
Tom Cruze of Oak Leaves for General News Photo.
Jennifer Clark of Oak Leaves for Best Editorial Page.
The Harold and Eva White Memorial trophy, which the Oak Leaves received for most accumulated points, is awarded in Class B for weekly papers of circulation 3,000 to 9,999.
In awarding the best web project for the Oak Leaves piece that chronicled the trip of a gay couple to obtain one of the first civil union licenses, Iowa Press Association judges said Luedert and Shields created “the kind of multimedia storytelling that readers aspire to find. Evocative and historic, while capturing the grandeur of the event.”
Irv Leavitt who won a Chicago Lisagor Award in May for his Unemployee series also impressed IPA judges. “Had to read every word of every piece in the series. Extremely funny and witty writing, yes; but also gives readers and inside look at professions we all wonder about. Beyond entertaining, this reporter is out to teach something.”
Oak Leaves’ editorial page won first on its “strength of the editorial on The List,” referring to the list that denigrated Oak Park-River Forest High School girls.
“Good balance between photos and print. Variety of hard and feature news,” Judges said about the La Grange Doings winning general excellence.
Second places were awarded for Oak Leaves Diversions staff for Lifestyle Section; Bill Dwyer of Oak Leaves for Enterprise Reporting; Charles Berman of Barrington Courier-Review for Sports Feature; Rich Martin of Northbrook Star for Sports Story; Mike Isaacs of Skokie Review for Business/Economic Reporting; and Rob Hart of Oak Leaves for Sports Photo.
Third places were awarded for Oak Leaves staff for General Excellence; Jane Michaels of La Grange Doings for Best School Board Coverage; Suzanne Tennant of Oak Leaves for Personality Portrait; Michael Schmidt of Buffalo Grove Countryside for Feature Photo; Lenore Krasner of Highland Park News for Best Informational Graphic; Meg Moore of Glenview Announcements for Original Column; Todd Shields of Oak Leaves for Government Beat Reporting; and Michael Schmidt for Mundelein Review for Sports Photo.
Honorable mentions went to Jennifer Clark and Bill Ruminiski of Oak Leaves for Best Website and Jennifer Clark of Oak Leaves for Local Editorial.
