A four-reporter team from City College – Mark Rivera, Dan Berger, John Balchak and Ernesto Lopez – won an award for enterprising reporting at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges’ Southern California conference.
The student journalists published articles studying their campus’s vulnerability to earthquake faults.
“It was a series of stories in one issue last spring produced by four writers just after the large quake in Baja on Easter,” said City Times adviser Roman Koenig.
“Being recognized for our hard work is definitely a blessing,” said Lopez, editor in chief at City Times. “We put a lot of hours into each issue, and we do it with passion.”
The conference, held on Oct. 15 and 16, also recognized outstanding performance in an on-the-spot newspaper production contest. City Times design editor Anulak Singphiphat received three awards for his work in the categories of News Judgment Layout-Tabloid, People’s Choice-Tabloid, and Bring-in Ad.
A few days after the JACC conference, City Times staff members were among student honorees at the 37th Annual Excellence in Journalism Awards. The San Diego Press Club hosted the event at the Hall of Champions on Oct. 19.
Lopez and Vanessa Gomez won first place in cover design for their work on “Budgetzilla,” a 2009 piece.
“What we produce out of our newsroom never ceases to amaze me,” said Gomez, a City Times copy editor who shares observations from her career as a flight attendant in the paper’s “View From The Top” column. “These awards just encourage us to do better.”
San Diego City College’s TV program “Newscene” was also recognized by the Press Club. Paul Kruze’s “Chicano Park” won first place in the pre-produced news feature category. “SportsKnight,” created by Eamon Long, Charlie Kenneweg, and Daniel Avila for San Diego City College ITV, finished first among sports programs.
The newspaper’s 2009 work also earned eight awards from the San Diego chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists at a banquet on July 8.
Among college media, City Times finished second in the Best Newspaper category, behind The Daily Aztec from SDSU. Tom Andrew’s review of the movie “State of Play”received a first place award.
At the 2010 installment of the San Diego County Fair, City Times earned three awards in the Student Showcase, including Best of Show, which Koenig called “a really nice treat.”
