The Pinnacle earns first place for local sports coverage
The Weekend Pinnacle received four awards at the 2008 California
Newspaper Publisher’s Association Better Newspaper Contest at an
annual luncheon Oct. 25 in Universal City.
The Pinnacle earns first place for local sports coverage
The Weekend Pinnacle received four awards at the 2008 California Newspaper Publisher’s Association Better Newspaper Contest at an annual luncheon Oct. 25 in Universal City.
The Pinnacle staff took home first place for sports coverage in the category of weeklies with circulations from 11,001 to 25,000. Former sports editor John Bagley and former production artist Dan Fitch earned the award for sports coverage from November 2007. The main articles included a feature on a senior triathlete titled “Senior moment” and a story on San Benito High School graduate Amanda Boyd, who continued her cross-country career at Northern Arizona State titled “Up to speed.”
“With a full-time staff of less than half a dozen, it really is an accomplishment,” said Mark Paxton, Pinnacle Publisher.
He acknowledged that with three of the four awards it took a team of staff members to be successful – with input from writers, the editor, photographers and production staff.
“It shows how important working together with a good team is to produce a good product for our readers,” he said.
The Pinnacle staff received second place for Lifestyles coverage from September 2007, which encompasses the main feature story as well as the regular columns that fill the Pinnacle each week. The cover stories and design were completed by Laurie Lemmerman-Castaneda, the former Life editor, who now serves as the production manager. The cover articles included “Elizabeth’s story,” a feature on a family who adopted through the Kinship Center, and “Hometown kind of fair,” a feature that highlighted participants in the county fair.
City editor Melissa Flores and two former staff photographers, Sarah Regnier and Daniel Cressman, received second place for public service for two stories last year on the San Benito County Homeless Task Force. The stories, along with a matching fund drive, helped raise $25,000 to keep the Homeless shelter open for its full season from the end of the November through the middle of March. The stories are entitled “Give me shelter” and “A place to call home.”
Former photographer Sarah Regnier also received second place for a photo essay of a branding on a local cattle ranch.
Staff received honorable mention for page layout and design and a second photo essay.
Each year CNPA hosts the Better Newspaper Contest, which is open to all newspapers in California who are members of the association. This year there were 4,000 entries from 276 newspapers. Staff members from each paper attend a judging where they choose the top four entries from each category. From there a panel of judges from papers outside California choose the top two winners.
More than 460 awards were given out at the luncheon to 130 papers.
Overall Main Street Media Group, the company that owns the Weekend Pinnacle, took home more than two dozen awards.
All photos and stories are available online at the Weekend Pinnacle Web site, www.pinnaclenews.com.
