Phil Ammann
Florida media was well represented this week at the 81st National Headliner Awards, including top awards for reporters John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times and Julie Brown of the Miami Herald.
The Press Club of Atlantic City launched the National Headliner Awards in 1934, an annual recognition of the best work in American journalism.
Winning both Best of Show and first place for local news beat coverage or continuing story was Brown’s “Cruel and Usual,” a Herald series of investigative reports on abuses in Florida’s prison system.
First place for local interest column went to Romano, the Times’ general interest columnist. The Times also received recognition for Laura Reiley, who won first place for special or feature column on one subject by an individual.
Jacob Carpenter of the Naples Daily News took first place in education writing for “Shuttered: Florida’s Failed Charter Schools.”
“Shuttered” is a nine-month investigation of charter school operators and failures in Florida law leading to the closure an average of one charter school every three weeks, 119 campuses since 2008.
Second place for health, medical and science writing went to “Insult to Injury,” by the Tampa Bay Times staff. “Insult” examined more than 10 million patient billing records and court records, interviewing dozens of patients. The paper found that hospitals charged outrageous trauma fees to thousands of patients, fees that are often more than the costs of actual medical care.
Coverage of the Florida State University shooting in November netted the first place award for Jacqueline Ingles, Carson Chambers and Ashley Yore of WFTS-TV in Tampa in broadcast or cable television stations coverage of a live breaking news event.
One of the oldest and largest annual award contests in the U.S., the Press Club of Atlantic City gives National Headliner Awards in three main categories: print, broadcast and online. Print encompasses newspaper and magazines; broadcast group includes radio and television. The online division includes journalism and visual entries associated with all types of news media.
Since 1935, more than 2,000 writers, photographers, daily newspapers, magazines, graphic artists, radio and television stations and networks, and news syndicates received Headliner medallions.
The full list of this year’s winners are available here.
