The Sun, and its sister paper New Times, occasionally enter contests—not, you know, for bragging rights or anything, but it’s fun to see how our papers hold up. We like to ask, “How do we compare to our fellow publications?”
And the most recent answer was: pretty well, thanks.
At a May 5 California Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspapers Contest event in San Jose, we learned that we took several top awards in our circulation divisions (Sun, weekly, 11,001 to 25,000; New Times, weekly, 25,001 and up).
The Sun racked up several achievements (basically an honorable mention sort of acknowledgment) for coverage of environment (Managing Editor Amy Asman), coverage of youth (Asman again), illustration (Neal Breton), and feature photo (Photographer Steve E. Miller). The paper took second place for editorial cartoon for Ross Mayfield’s depiction of Santa Barbara County as a car going over a cliff.
First place awards went twice to “Jail break,” a cover story about mental illness and recidivism related to the Santa Barbara County Jail: one top honor for Miller’s photography, and another for Managing Editor Asman’s writing. Jeremy Thomas was also awarded first place for investigative reporting for his August 2011 story “Betraying the badge?,” which highlighted tensions related to the Santa Maria Police Department.
Check out New Times to read about the other awards we won.
This article appears in May 10-17, 2012.
