Island Packet & Beaufort Gazette win 41 journalism awards, President's Cup from SCPA
For the second time in three years, The Island Packet has been named the winner of the President's Cup for most outstanding newspaper in South Carolina Press Association judging.
In all, the Packet and Beaufort Gazette received 41 awards, including 14 first places, for work done throughout 2017.
Three Packet journalists were honored in top categories for aggressive journalism:
- Alex Kincaid's work covering the town of Hilton Head was recognized in the Montgomery/Shuff Freedom of Information category.
- Kasia Kovacs' examination of Bluffton's time off and overtime policies in the police department was honored with the Jay Bender Award for Assertive Journalism.
- David Lauderdale was the winner of the E.A. Ramsaur Award for Editorial Writing for his writings about the community's hurricane preparedness and criticism of the Beaufort County School Board.
Other highlights include:
Reporter Erin Heffernan's exposure of the lack of sexual assault prosecutions in Beaufort County won for best investigative reporting. And The Packet also received a third-place honor in the public service category for its work covering Tropical Storm Irma.
Reporter Wade Livingston won four first-place honors: for enterprise reporting (Bluffton family tries to stay together in face of deportation), beat reporting (for coverage of the military), series of articles (Highway 278 feature stories) and arts and entertainment writing (Gullah rappers).
Reporter Stephen Fastenau was recognized with first-place honors for both business beat reporting and spot sports news.
Liz Farrell was named top columnist and also took a first place in lifestyle feature writing (local babies named Romeo and Juliet).
Kincaid also won a first place for news feature writing for her tale of how a tragedy led a family to find new purpose on Hilton Head.
The SCPA judging is arranged in such a way that The Island Packet competes against all South Carolina papers in some categories and in a division for papers with circulations between 16,000-45,000 in others. Papers in the latter category include Myrtle Beach, Rock Hill and Spartanburg, among others.
Earlier this year, the papers won a President’s Award for Public Service from the McClatchy Co. for its in-depth look at the area's workforce and housing crisis with its 2016 project, Propping up Paradise.
This story was originally published March 16, 2018 at 10:41 AM with the headline "Island Packet & Beaufort Gazette win 41 journalism awards, President's Cup from SCPA."