City Times swept an entire category in the college journalism division of the San Diego Press Club’s annual awards in November.
The accomplishment is part of several local and regional awards the student newspaper has won in the past six months.
Seven current and former staff members won awards from the Press Club, which held its annual banquet Nov. 7 at Chuey’s restaurant. The week before, three staffers won awards from the Journalism Association of Community Colleges’ Southern California regional conference.
Two City Times students, Whitney Lawrence and Nailah Edmondson, attended the JACC conference. They were the first to represent San Diego City College at a JACC event in at least 20 years, according to faculty adviser Roman Koenig.
“I’m glad I went,” Edmondson said. It was informative.”
Koenig said it was clear the conference put their work at City Times into context.
“Nailah and Whitney returned from the conference energized and excited about how to make a quality student newspaper,” Koenig said. “Their attendance was crucial to placing City Times and the college back into active status in JACC. We’re not just active at a distance like we’ve been since 2003. Now we can say we’re actually there.”
Koenig also won two Press Club awards for magazine writing.
In July, City Times won second place for Best Newspaper from the Society of Professional Journalists’ San Diego chapter. Scott Landheer, who was the paper’s editor-in-chief last spring, won an honorable mention in photography for his fall 2006 photo of City College’s submersible robot team. Landheer was on hand at SPJ’s banquet, which featured former “60 Minutes” producer Lowell Bergman, whose work on the news magazine inspired the movie “The Insider.”
City Times also won accolades from the San Diego County Fair over the summer. The paper won Best in Class in layout and design. The award was accepted by Landheer, who was responsible for the paper’s overall design that semester.
November’s Press Club winners were:
Scott Landheer: third place news writing, second and third place news design, third place feature design
Emily Pfaff: first place column
Brittany Arquette: second place
opinion/commentary writing
Lauren Ciallella: second place review
Rebecca Saffran: third place review
David J. Olender: first place
feature design
Nicole Burdette: second place
feature design
November’s JACC winners were:
Rosemarie Davis: honorable mention news/feature writing
Lauren Ciallella: second place
critical review
Scott Landheer: second place front page layout
City Times staff members are now looking to JACC’s spring conference in Los Angeles. Between now and the start of the spring semester, the newspaper will be moving its offices from L-125 to T-316 as the L building is prepped for renovation.
