Daily staff takes 37 awards from Virginia Press Association

Daily Staff Report

ROANOKE — Northern Virginia Daily news staff members received 37 awards for excellence in writing, photography and newspaper design Saturday during the Virginia Press Association’s annual editorial conference.

The association, which met at the Hotel Roanoke, also presented its prestigious Sweepstakes award to the Daily, honoring the Strasburg-based newspaper for accumulating the most points in the 2007 editorial awards competition. The Daily competes with Virginia newspapers with daily circulation of up to 20,000.

The Star-Exponent of Culpeper finished second in the Sweepstakes competition for the Daily’s circulation category.

The Daily, which accumulated 86 points in the association’s editorial contest, has won the Sweepstakes competition eight years in a row and in 17 of the last 20 years.

Sweepstakes awards also were presented to the News and Advance of Lynchburg in the association’s category for medium-size daily newspapers, and to the Virginian-Pilot of Hampton Roads in the category for the state’s largest newspapers.

The association, which represents almost every newspaper in Virginia, holds one of the largest editorial contests in the nation. Overall, VPA member publications submitted 4,710 entries for the 2007 contest, which was judged by members of the New Jersey Press Association.

The Daily received the most individual awards in its circulation class, including 19 first-place awards, 11 second-place awards and seven third-place awards. The Daily received writing awards for:

• Series of news stories: First place (“Lifelines”), for Sally Voth, Becky Krystal, Carolyn Keister Baker and Garren Shipley.
• Spot news writing: First place (“I-81 in knots”), for Elizabeth Wilkerson and Preston Knight.
• Feature writing portfolio: First place, for Knight; and second place, for Voth.
• Sports writing portfolio: First place, for Craig Juer.
• Column writing: First place, for Chris Fordney.
• Business and financial writing: First place, for Jim Heffernan.
• Health, science and environmental writing: Second place, for Natalie Austin.
• General news writing: Second place (“Off to Iraq”), for Knight, Heffernan, Voth, Josette Keelor and Linwood Outlaw III.
• In-depth or investigative reporting: Second place (“FEMA ice meltdown”), for Shipley.
• Feature series or continuing story: Second place (“Apple Blossom Festival”), for the Daily staff.

• Special sections: First place (“The Northern Virginia Daily 75th anniversary”), for the Daily staff; and third place (“See Shenandoah”), for the Daily staff.
• Informational graphics: First place (“Shag properties”), for Jon Turner; and second place (“Conservation easements”), for Turner.
• Illustrations: First place (“Bonds sets the record”), for Anthony Ring; and second place (“The year in rewind”), for Turner.
• Specialty pages or sections: First place (“All-area sections”), for the Daily sports staff; second place, (“Valley Scene — Home”), for Krystal and Laura Withers.
• Business, financial or agricultural pages: First place, for Heffernan.
• Sports pages: First place, for the Daily sports staff.
• Front page: Third place, for the Daily staff.
• Editorial pages: Third place, for the Daily staff.

• Sports feature photo: First place (“The championship moment”), for Dennis Grundman; and second place (“State baseball champs”), for Rich Cooley.
• Spot news photo: First place (“Through the front door”), for Grundman; and third place (“Townhouse fire”), for Alan Lehman.
• Sports news photo: First place (“Shadow catch”), for Grundman; and third place (“No whistle?”), for Grundman.
• Picture story or essay: First place (“Autumn glory”), for Cooley.
• Feature photo: First place (“Out on a limb”), for Lehman.
• General news photo: First place (“A kiss for the queen”), for Lehman.
• Personality or portrait photo: Second place (“Rain forest project”), for Cooley.
• In the “special categories” competition, Austin and Cooley swept all three awards in the combination picture and story category. The awards were first place (“Doggie in the window”), second place (“Furniture facelift”), and third place (“Whiskey talkin’”).
• In the multimedia projects competition, the Daily staff received a third-place award for multimedia feature reporting (“Milestone 300”).