National Headliner Award Winners Announced
Press release from the AP
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Newspaper reporters who exposed a patronage system that plagued a Tennessee county and a photographer who chronicled a family’s economic struggles in Texas captured top spots Friday in the 74th annual National Headliner Awards.
Broadcasters in Maryland and North Carolina were also honored with grand awards — the highest prizes given as part of the national journalism contest run by The Press Club of Atlantic City.
The four grand awards, which come with $1,500 prizes, will be presented along with dozens of other Headliner Awards at a May 17 banquet in Atlantic City.
Along with the grand award, the Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel also won first place in the public service category for its series called “Term Limit Turmoil.”
The stories reported on the appointments of family members and political insiders to replace prominent officeholders who had been ousted after the Tennessee Supreme Court decided term limits applied to the Knox County officials. They also looked at the dealings of the county clerk, trustee and register of deeds.
The 12 appointees, who were named during a meeting that frequently went into recess, were removed following the newspaper’s successful public records lawsuit.
“Scrappy, thoughtful, brave and inventive, this collection of stories about a group of local politicians, their family members and flunkies trying to hold onto power embodies the best traditions of accountability reporting,” the judges said.
The grand award in photography went to Melanie Burford of The Dallas Morning News for her images in “The Fight for Sugar Hill,” which followed a struggling family in Texas’ richest county for three years. The entry also won first place for photo essay/story.
The judges said the images “of rare intimacy, power and sensitivity were far and away the most successful example of storytelling in the photography categories.”
To see all the award winners please go to http://www.nationalheadlinerawards.com/
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