Press Democrat wins top award in regional journalism contest

The Press Democrat won 18 awards, including the top overall prizes for excellence and coverage of breaking news in the San Francisco Peninsula Press Club’s annual journalism contest. Press Democrat staff won a total of nine first-place awards.

The contest evaluated work done in 2014 by Bay Area print and online journalists, photographers, radio and TV staffers and public relations professionals. The Press Democrat’s work was judged against that of other daily newspapers. Winners were announced during a weekend awards ceremony in Foster City.

The staff as a whole won first place in breaking news for coverage of the magnitude 6.0 earthquake that struck Napa County on Aug. 24, 2014.

Glenda Anderson took first place in the news article category, for an article about a practice by the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office that allows defendants brought up on felony marijuana charges to plead guilty to misdemeanors after agreeing to pay the county restitution.

Photographer Kent Porter won first place in the news photo category for a picture of a man standing in Safeway’s flooded parking lot in Healdsburg last December.

Staff Writers Jeremy Hay and Robert Digitale won first place for continuing coverage of the scandal at the Rancho Feeding slaughterhouse in Petaluma. Digitale also was awarded first place for business coverage for an article about how the scandal at Rancho followed the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision not to replace a departing inspector of the facility.

Copy Editor Patty Hayes won first place in page design for the front page after the San Francisco Giants beat the Kansas City Royals in the World Series.

Columnist Kerry Benefield won first place in the sports column category. Assistant Editorial Director Jim Sweeney won first place for an editorial on successful homeless service programs.

Receiving second-place awards were Porter, Hay, Christopher Chung, Phil Barber, Lowell Cohn and Paul Gullixson. Beth Schlanker and Barber received third-place awards.