March 3, 2008

Journalism Awards Winners Announced

CHICAGO — Newspapers inform, comment — and sometimes change the world. Each of the three winning newspapers in this year's American Planning Association Journalism Award Competition accomplished at least one of these tasks.

This year's winners were the Kansas City Star, the East Valley Tribune, and the Montrose Daily Press.

Kansas City, Missouri, was stuck in its efforts to design a new transit system, so the Kansas City Star offered a plan of its own. That concept has been endorsed by various local groups, and the city council scrapped its original scheme in order to consider it.

The Kansas City Star won the 2008 journalism award for a large newspaper (circulation above 100,000). Its winning entry, "Light Rail Plan for Kansas City," was published last October. Jeffrey Spivak, Michael Mansur, and Brad Cooper were the winning writers.

The East Valley Tribune attacked an entirely different issue: a developer with vast land holdings in the Phoenix metropolitan area who had a history of broken deals. "Desert Dealer," a three-day series on the topic, was published in April 2007.

The East Valley Tribune of Mesa, Arizona, was this year's winner among medium-sized newspapers (circulation 50,000 to 100,000). Its winning writer was Mark Flatten.

"Growth" pretty well sums up the vast changes facing Montrose, Colorado, and it was the title of an 18-page special report published in the Montrose Daily Press last November. Eight writers and a staff photographer contributed to the articles, which ultimately made the Daily Press the winner among small newspapers (circulation below 50,000).

The judges noted that the report touched on almost every topic local people would care about. "From concept all the way through presentation, it was just top notch," they said.

The year 2008 marks the 48th year of the APA Journalism Award Competition, which honors North American newspapers for excellent coverage of city and regional planning topics.

Judges for this year's competition were Mandy Burrell, assistant communications director of the Metropolitan Planning Council; Steven Duke and Marcel Pacatte of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University; and Kathy Tholin, chief executive officer of the Center for Neighborhood Technology. All of them are based in Chicago.

Contact

Sylvia Lewis, 312-431-9100 x16370; slewis@planning.org