Branford Eagle Wins 15 SPJ Journalism Awards

The Branford Eagle staff, all veteran reporters and photographers, took home 15 Society of Professional Journalism (SPJ) awards last week, including first place awards for court, crime, business, and religion coverage related to life in Branford. 

The annual CTSPJ Excellence in Journalism awards were announced last Thursday evening at the SPJ Connecticut chapter’s dinner at Memories at the Tradition in Wallingford.

Entries are judged by out-of-state judges, all of whom are professional journalists. This year the judges who evaluated the Connecticut entries came from San Diego, California. In all, there were 798 entries. SPJ was founded in 1909 and has chapters across the nation.

This year, the Connecticut Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) celebrated its 50th anniversary and past SPJ presidents attended the dinner on May 26. 

Eagle Awards

Overall, the Eagle’s won six first place awards in various hyperlocal categories, four second place awards and five third place awards. Reporter Sally E. Bahner and Chambers won a first place award for their coverage of Mullen’s suicide. Bahner also received a third place award in the Arts and Entertainment category for her article, ​“The Coloring (R)Evolution.” Reporter Diana Stricker won a third place award, along with Chambers, for their continuing coverage of Costco’s effort to build in Branford. Photographer Mary Johnson took a first place award in the photo essay category for her ​“Crown of Blossoms Bursting Forth” essay. Bill O’Brien, our sports reporter and photographer, took third place for one of his sports photos.

Chambers, Stricker, Bahner, Johnson and O’Brien won their awards in the hyperlocal category of photography, business, audio story-telling, continuing coverage, religion, crime, courts, arts and entertainment, in-depth, breaking news, and investigative reporting. This year’s hyperlocal category is new and includes both on-line and print newspaper publications.

Editor Marcia Chambers won four first place awards. Her stories included the Lishan Wang murder case, the Branford police department’s use of video cams, commercial clamming in Short Beach waters and the suicide of Deputy Fire Chief Ron Mullen.

Chambers also won three awards for her new radio show, The Legal Eagle, which can be heard on the New Haven Independent’s radio station, WNHH — 103.5 FM every Tuesday at 10 a.m. The awards went to radio shows featuring Bill Clendenen, president of the Connecticut Bar Association, Laura Burban, director of the Cosgrove Animal Shelter and Willie Dow, a leading criminal defense attorney in the state.

The Online Journalism Project

The Branford Eagle is part of the Online Journalism Project, a non-profit organization, which also publishes the New Haven Independent and the Valley Independent Sentinel. Both the Valley and the Indy won a series of prizes in various categories.

In the hyperlocal/government category, Eugene Driscoll, editor of the Valley Indy and Jodie Mozdzer Gill, a former editor and currently a free-lance reporter and journalism teacher, took second place for a story on the Derby school board violating nepotism policy.

Other awards were won by journalism students of Mozdzer Gill. Their articles appeared in the Independent. 

In the hyperlocal/sports feature category, second place went to a story by Sandra Gomez-Aceves and Allaysia Varnado for their story, ​“Wrestlers Aim High as New Season Approaches.”

Students Edgar Ayala and Jared Klim also won second place in the hyperlocal/video storytelling category for ​“Hillhouse Team Overcame Practice Field Challenge.” Third place in this category went to Katherine G. Krajcik and Amy Kulikowski for their story ​“Hopkins Swimmer Looks toward Olympic Trial.”

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