Award-winning photograph by Elena Jasic
Springtime brings us warmer weather, flowers galore and, if you’re a journalist in Pennsylvania, the year’s most anticipated press awards.
On Thursday, we learned that TheBurg received 17 individual and group Keystone Media Awards, a peer-reviewed contest sponsored by the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association Foundation. According to PNA, it received more than 2,500 entries from 110 news organizations, with entries judged by working journalists in Virginia.
Our awards cover a wide range of areas, including reporting, writing, photography, illustration and design and include the prestigious “Sweepstakes” award for the best performance statewide in our category.
Of special note, our contributor, Diane McCormick, received the first-ever, “Freelance Journalist of the Year,” a specialty prize awarded to just one journalist throughout the entire commonwealth. So, be sure to click on her submission to read some of the highest-quality freelance writing work in Pennsylvania.
But let us delay no further. As I have in recent years, I have all the winners listed below, with links so you can see what the judges deemed to be some of the best work done statewide in 2021.
SPECIALTY AWARD
Freelance Journalist of the Year: M. Diane McCormick (a single, statewide award)
Diane McCormick Freelance Journalist of the Year
REPORTING/WRITING AWARDS
News Beat Reporting: First Place, Maddie Gittens (Harrisburg government beat, 5 stories)
Harrisburg cleans up blighted properties, works to address illegal dumping
CARES Act funding under fire, Harrisburg School District loses students to cyber charters
Dauphin County to release rent relief money, could relieve large amount of tenant debt
News Feature Story: First Place, Maddie Gittens
News Feature Story: Honorable Mention, Maddie Gittens
Sports Feature: Second Place, Jeff Falk
Sports Feature, Honorable Mention, Maddie Gittens
Personality Profile: Second Place, Karen Hendricks
Lifestyle/Entertainment Beat: Second Place, Maddie Gittens (6 stories)
Lifestyle/Entertainment Beat: Honorable Mention, Stephanie Kalina-Metzger (6 stories)
Lifestyle Entertainment Beat SKM
Headline Writing: First Place, Lawrance Binda (3 headlines)
Headline Writing: Second Place, Lawrance Binda and Maddie Gittens (3 headlines)
Podcast: Second Place, Karen Hendricks (3 podcasts)
A Warm Welcome to 2021
Drama and Adventure
An Ice-Skater, Violinist and Illustrator
Diversity: Second Place: Susan Ryder, M. Diane McCormick, Maddie Gittens (3 stories)
ART/DESIGN AWARDS
Feature Photo: Second Place, Elena Jasic
Photo/Essay Story: First Place, Meg Caruso
Feature Page Design: Second Place, Meg Caruso (3 designs)
Graphic/Photo Illustration: First Place, Rich Hauck
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