Cleveland’s House of Blues was the House of Orange and Brown as so many of our students and alumni were recognized for their great work during the Press Club of Clevelands Ohio Excellence in Journalism awards event.
Headline? Proud past, bright future
Let’s start with our students, who dominated the college division with 12 awards, including sweeping three categories.
🧹Page Design: Janessa Jewell (🥇) (Judges: “Very creative! The visual design plays to the nature of the story, well done”), Emerald Shanefelt (🥈) (Judges: “Creative sports graphic, I like the use of the comic book style design”), Ali K. Khoramshad (🥉) (Judges: “The design feels very playful which is fitting for its purpose”)
🧹Photography: Kamon Molina (🥇) (Judges: “Excellent composition in capturing a second of time”), Coyle Withrow (🥈) (Judges: “Great action shot with good clarity for sports”), Curt Lydy (🥉) (Judges: “You really captured a moment here”)
🧹Sports writing: Dawson Pelter (🥇), Rhys Patrykus (🥈), Tyler Kavalecz & Holden Ruck (🥉)
🏆 First place: Visuals: Graphics Janessa Jewell (🥇) (Judges: “Well done and creative graphic. The visuals aid in the storytelling!”)
🏆 First place: Video: Sports – Andrew Smith, Benjamin Corak (🥇) (Judges: “Clever approach that leads to a conversational and compelling discussion … the nail-painting activity puts a fun spin on what’s usually the least visually compelling part of the
standard sitdown interview”)
🏆 First place: Writing: General News – Tyler Kavalecz, Nate Hinners, Foster Roesti and Curt Lydy (🥇) (Judges: “Good solid piece of reporting. No frills just the facts”)
Impressive, but our alumni represented, too.
It’s a good thing Mike McIntyre‘s Ideastream Public Media team sat so close to the podium because our count had them at 68 awards for the night. 🤯
💵 Max Filby and Danae King (and Columbus Dispatch team members Samantha Hendrickson, Samantha Madar) took home a cash award as their radon project won third place in the prestigious A-Mark competition. The judges said, “This series provided potentially life-saving information that would not have otherwise been uncovered.”
🏅Speaking of … Duane Pohlman took home first place in that category (Judges said, “In a very strong field, this work stood out for the depth of its reporting on a community often overlooked”), as well as first place for In-Depth Report or Series, Science & Technology and Environment. He was also named Best in Ohio in the video reporting category (Judges said, “: Outstanding work. Emotional, human, backed up with documentation, quotes from gov. What journalism should be.”).
👏🏼Other alumni recognized include – Erin Esmont Rabinowitz (who was part of the team that won Best in Ohio for Public Affairs/News Talk Show and third place for best podcast) and Carrie Blackmore, whose writing earned two awards, first place for Science & Technology (Judges said, “A detailed story on the cautions of AI taking over the work force over the previous few years”) and third place in Education (Judges said, “A thorough profile of an important Ohio education figure. Really nice mix of
interviews and personal background, along with contextual. information about the state of the school district”).
.🎤Cherry on the awards ceremony sundae? We caught up with Beth (Thomas) Hertz and her award-winning husband and our own Elizabeth McIntyre opened and closed the event.