Daily Herald website garners top Illinois honors
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The Daily Herald's website has been named the state's top newspaper website among large-circulation papers by the Illinois Associated Press Editors Association.
Daily Herald writers, photographers and editors took home awards in seven other categories as well.
Daily Herald Senior Vice President/Editor John Lampinen said the website award recognizes the efforts of the staff to "strengthen our digital journalism."
"This award reflects the efforts ... to improve the relevancy and timeliness of our content, enhance the engagement of our headlines and summaries, greatly expand our links and assets, bring civility to our online comments, fine-tune navigability, attract user-generated content and add Web-only features and reporting," Lampinen wrote in a memo to the editorial staff.
Photographer Steve Lundy received a second-place award in the pictorial photo category for his shot of a motocross rider.
Writers Marni Pyke and Lenore Adkins along with newspaper's editorial board were recognized with a third-place award in the public service category for "Fatal Distraction," a series of reports on distracted driving.
Writer Jamie Sotonoff also received a third-place award in the enterprise series category for her reports on heroin addiction and deaths in the suburbs.
Chicago White Sox beat writer Scot Gregor garnered a third-place award in the sports feature category for his story on beleaguered White Sox slugger Adam Dunn receiving a standing ovation after simply getting a hit.
The paper's staff received two third-place honors as well for breaking news and multimedia storytelling. The award for breaking news was for coverage of the February 2011 blizzard, while the multimedia storytelling award came for a series of reports, photographs and videos detailing the 10th anniversary observances in the suburbs of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The awards will be handed out at The Associated Press Editors Association June 14 banquet in Springfield.
