Post and Courier wins state, national awards

Staff garners 64 S.C. Press Association honors, including President's Cup for most awards

SPARTANBURG — The Post and Courier staff won 64 awards at the South Carolina Press Association annual banquet Friday night — more than any other large newspaper in the state.

At the event held in Spartanburg, 36 staff members were recognized for achievements in reporting, editing, photography, art and design. The newspaper won the President's Award for Excellence for large daily newspapers for earning the most awards. This marks the third consecutive year the paper has won that honor.

The newspaper's coverage of the June 18 Sofa Super Store fire won the staff first-place honors for Reporting in Depth and three other writing awards. Fire coverage also brought the newspaper two awards for photography, one for news graphics, one for online material and another for integration of print and Web coverage.

Reporters and photographers also won two second-place honors for fire coverage.

Several reporters and photographers worked for months to chronicle the effect of the fire on the victims' families, the Charleston Fire Department and the public.

Reporter Ron Menchaca won the Press Association's Journalist of the Year Award. Menchaca's accomplishments include his role in the fire coverage and a series on the state's aging school bus fleet, both of which have garnered national honors.

Menchaca also was part of the team that won Reporting in Depth honors for coverage of the fire. The other team members were: Glenn Smith, Tony Bartelme, Robert Behre, Doug Pardue and David Slade.

Bob Kinney won for Copy Editor of the Year and received a second-place award for Feature Headline Writing.

Reporter Smith won first-place Feature Writing honors. He also won second-place awards for Enterprise Reporting with Menchaca, and for his coverage of the crime beat. He took third place in Profile Feature Writing.

Bartelme won first place in Enterprise Reporting for his story about Ali Saleh al-Marri, an enemy combatant in the Navy's brig in Hanahan. He also earned both second- and third-place honors for Series of Articles.

Features reporter Rob Young took first-place awards for Lifestyle Feature Writing and second place for Profile Feature Writing.

Photographer Grace Beahm won the JL Sims Memorial Award for Spot news Photo. Brad Nettles won first place for his General News Photo. Wade Spees won first place for Feature Photo and third place for General News Photo.

Photographer Alan Hawes won first-place honors for Sports Action Photo, two second-place awards — for JL Sims Memorial Award for Spot News Photo and General News Photo — and a third-place award for Photo Series.

Melissa Haneline won first place for Best Pictorial and also won a third-place award for Feature Photo.

Mic Smith took first place for Personality Photograph and also won a second-place award for Sports Action Photo.

Other first-place award winners include: Ken Hawkins and Gill Guerry for News Graphics; Fred Rindge for Sports Headline Writing; Katy Stech for Short Story; Jill Coley for Health Reporting; Frank Wooten for Humor Column Writing; Bill Henley for Sports Enterprise Reporting; Marcus Amaker for Page Design, The Post and Courier for the Best Photo Gallery on a Newspaper Web site and The Post and Courier for Public Service for Daily Newspapers.

Other winners include:

--Philip Bowman, second place, Spot Sports Story

--Gill Guerry, second place, Informational Graphics Portfolio and third place, Illustrations

--Beth Harrison, second place, News Headline Writing

--Ken Hawkins, second place, News Graphics and third place, Informational Graphics Portfolio

--Brian Hicks, second place and third place, Feature Writing

--Bo Petersen, second place, Short Story

--Gene Sapakoff, second place, Sports Feature Story and third place, Sports Column Writing

--Kyle Stock and Schuyler Kropf, second place, Reporting in Depth

--Tim Thorsen, second place, Sports Headline Writing and third place, Sports Page Design

--Bryce Donovan and Young, third place, Humor Column Writing

--Chad Dunbar, third place, Page Design

--Prentiss Findlay, third place, Enterprise Reporting

--Ron Menchaca and Mindy Hagen, third place, Judson Chapman Award for community service

--Katy Stech, third place, Business Reporting

--Kyle Stock and Jessica Johnson, third place, Spot News Reporting

--Matt Winter and Chad Dunbar, third place, Page One Design

--Tommy Braswell, third place, Sport Sports Story

Tyrone Walker, third place, JL Sims Memorial Award for Spot News Photo

The Montgomery Freedom of Information Award went to The Post and Courier and The State in Columbia.

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