Argus-Courier wins state journalism awards

The Argus-Courier won 11 California Journalism Awards from the California News Publishers Association on Saturday, including second place in the General Excellence category.|

The Argus-Courier won 11 California Journalism Awards from the California News Publishers Association on Saturday, including second place in the General Excellence category.

The paper was honored with three first place awards, seven second-place awards and one third-place award in the category for weekly newspapers with circulations between 4,301 to 11,000.

“I am very proud of the outstanding journalistic accomplishments put forth by the Argus-Courier newsroom staff this past year,” Publisher John Burns said. “It’s hugely gratifying to see their hard work recognized by our colleagues in the industry across the state.”

Photographer Crissy Pascual won first place in the Artistic Photo category for an image of a dancer at Petaluma’s Dia de los Muertos festival.

Reporters Hannah Beausang and Matt Brown won first place in Breaking News for their coverage of the October wildfires.

Brown won first place in Coverage of Local Government for his piece explaining why Petaluma was spared from the fire damage.

The entire newspaper staff took second place in General Excellence, the top award given by the CNPA. General Excellence is awarded based on five editions of the newspaper from 2017, including editions from October during the wildfires.

“The Petaluma Argus-Courier is a really usable, reader-friendly paper that includes solid journalism,” the judges wrote. “Good tailoring of fire coverage to the readership. Broad scope of coverage with sports section, schools/youth and community, weekend, food, opinion.”

Beausang also won second place for Agricultural Reporting, for a story about the changing face of local agriculture; and Coverage of Local Government, for a story on budget cuts to local programs. Brown won second for Investigative Reporting, for a story on alleged mismanagement at the Petaluma Animal Shelter. Sports Editor John Jackson won second place for Columns, for his personal experience surviving the wildfires; and Sports Feature Story, for a story about a Petaluma High Trojan super fan. Cartoonist Pete McDonnell won second place for Editorial Cartoon, for a cartoon about the Las Vegas shooting.

The staff won third place in the Online General Excellence category for the newspaper’s website, petaluma360.com.

In addition, Argus-Courier Reporter Yousef Baig won five awards for work at the Napa Valley Register and the St. Helena Star. He won first place for Sports Feature Story and Sports Game Story, second place for Columns and third place for Sports Feature Story and Sports Game Story.

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