Daily Herald nets 15 awards from Illinois Press Association

The Illinois Press Association has honored the Daily Herald with 15 awards and six honorable mentions for excellence in journalism in 2016, including top prizes for editorial writing, photography, school board coverage and informational graphics.

The Daily Herald competes in the largest of six circulation categories.

Editor John Lampinen, Jim Slusher and the editorial board were cited for best local editorial on the paper's endorsement in the Presidential campaign. The judges said: "Terrific writing. Thoughtful, persuasive without being preachy. Far and away the best of the class, a superb entry." The paper also won third place for best editorial page.

Jake Griffin, Erin Hegarty and the editorial board won first place in school board coverage of the Palatine District 15 teachers contract. "Excellent coverage on the topic," the judges said. "Deep and enterprising news writing supported by editorial board opinion pieces ... All of this contributes to the community's understanding of the work of the district and school board, in this case in a difficult governance situation."

Tim Broderick was awarded first place for informational graphics for his front-page analysis on the election in the suburbs. "Excellent detailed data analysis with extensive, labor intensive graphics on county primary races in suburban counties," the judges said. "Easy to comprehend and well executed."

Photographer Joe Lewnard was awarded first place in spot news photography for his image of a train involved in a crash. "Good photo on the scene," judges said.

"I'm very proud of the work of the entire staff," Managing Editor Jim Baumann said. "It's wonderful to see so many of them receive the recognition they deserve."

The newspaper also received several second-place awards, including:

• Jake Griffin in coverage of taxation for his Suburban Tax Watchdog column.

• Dann Gire in feature writing for his story "A Life Interrupted."

• John Dietz in the sports feature category for "Stan Mikita's kids share memories of their dad."

• John Starks in feature photography for "Night fishing."

• Don Friske in the headline writing category.

Third-place awards were given to Jake Griffin in the community service category for his series, "300 miles from Flint/How safe is our water?"; the newspaper in the general excellence category; the newspaper's editorial page; Burt Constable for original column; Paul Valade for sports photo; and Dan White for personality portrait.