Daily Herald nominated for 18 Peter Lisagor Awards for journalism
The Daily Herald staff has been nominated for 18 Peter Lisagor Awards for Exemplary Journalism.
Reporters, editors, photographers, a page designer and the Editorial Board are among this year's finalists, with wins assured in three categories in which the Daily Herald is the only finalist or has claimed all the finalist slots.
The newspaper has all three finalists for Best Editorial Writing. Finalists are Editor John Lampinen for a series of editorials; Deputy Managing Editor for Opinion Jim Slusher, Lampinen and the Editorial Board for a series on the newspaper's Facts Matter campaign; and the Editorial Board for editorials on the Cook County sweetened beverage tax.
Photographer John Starks is the only finalist for Best News Photo for a photo of a man grieving after a worker died in a sewer line in Streamwood, and Assistant Managing Editor Neil Holdway is the only finalist for Best Design for his work on the Aug. 21 solar eclipse.
The finalists are in the under-100,000 circulation category.
Awards will be given at a dinner May 11 in Chicago.
Other finalists are:
• Best Deadline Reporting: The Daily Herald staff for coverage of record-breaking floods in July 2017 and staff writers Christopher Placek and Chacour Koop for coverage of a February 2017 crash in which a 21-year-old driving 135 mph killed three members of an Arlington Heights family.
• Best Political and Government Reporting: Staff writers Placek, Jake Griffin, Bob Susnjara, Elena Ferrarin and Eric Peterson for coverage of the Cook County sweetened beverage tax rollout.
• Best Education Reporting: Griffin, Susnjara and Chicago Sun-Times staff writer Mitch Dudek for the Daily Herald/Chicago Sun-Times collaboration, "Friday Night Flight," about declines in prep football participation.
• Best Science, Health or Environment Reporting: Staff writer Marie Wilson for a series on mental health of military veterans and Wilson and Ferrarin for a series on the shortage of mental health care for the poor.
• Best Business or Consumer Reporting: Placek, staff writers Lauren Rohr, Marco Ortiz and Anna Marie Kukec, Editor of Data Journalism and Graphics Tim Broderick, and staff photographer Joe Lewnard for a series on the minimum wage in Cook County.
• Best Feature Story or Series: Columnist Burt Constable for "Who killed Tim McNamee?" and staff writers Rohr, Susnjara, Jim Fuller, Susan Sarkauskas, Harry Hitzeman and Steve Zalusky for "A Family Tragedy," about the killing of teenage twins by their father in St. Charles.
• Best Arts Reporting and Criticism: Dann Gire for a selection of film reviews.
• Best Sports Photo. Two photos by Starks.
• Best Multimedia Collaboration: Griffin, Susnjara and Dudek for "Friday Night Flight."