Five staff writers and the editorial board at The Columbian have won honors in the C.B. Blethen Memorial Awards for Distinguished Newspaper Reporting. Awards were presented Thursday in Portland.
Scott Hewitt, Tyler Graf and the editorial board received a first-place award in distinguished coverage of diversity among newspapers with circulation of 50,000 or less for 10 stories about housing for the homeless. The stories were: Graf’s stories “Where there’s homework but no home” from Jan. 19, and “State officials says program for homeless needs bigger slice of the pie,” from Jan. 19; Hewitt’s stories “Where do the homeless go?,” May 4; “Homeless man prefers Sifton,” May 4; “Open House buys neighboring property,” May 4; “Housing First model may find home in Vancouver,” May 5; “At Bud Clark Commons, better health,” May 5; “Who’s most at risk,” May 5; and two editorials by the editorial board: “In Our View: A home for the homeless,” May 7; and “In Our View: An education in homelessness,” Jan. 21.
See a complete list of Blethen Award winners from all newspapers.
The Columbian’s editorial board is comprised of Publisher Scott Campbell, Community Partnerships Director Jody Campbell, Editor Lou Brancaccio, Editorial Page Editor Greg Jayne and Chief Financial Officer Doug Ness.
Patty Hastings received a second-place award in deadline reporting among newspapers with circulation of 50,000 or less for her story “Tweets on crash lead to heartbreak; Vancouver scanner enthusiast chronicling fatal I-205 accident,” that told the story of a woman who unwittingly live-tweeted the fatal crash that killed her husband. The story ran Dec. 5.
Susan Parrish received a second-place award for feature writing among newspapers with circulation of 50,000 or less for her story “Former juvenile detention center teacher remembered: Inspirational ‘Mr. A’ recalled for devotion to students” that ran Feb. 21.
In a competition open to newspapers of all circulation size, Marissa Harshman won a first-place in the Debby Lowman Award for Distinguished Reporting of Consumer Affairs for five stories she wrote as part of The Columbian’s Live Well section. The stories were: “Playing it safe at the fair,” Aug. 5, 2013; “Healthier holidays,” Nov. 25, 2013; “The dry facts,” Dec. 23, 2013; “Signifying nothing,” Feb. 24; and “We can work it out,” Jan. 6. Harshman received second place in the category last year.
Newspapers in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Alaska and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia were eligible to enter the contest.
The Columbian received four awards, which is more than any other newspaper with circulation of 50,000 or less. The Everett Daily Herald received three awards. The Yakima Herald Republic received two awards; The Post Register in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and The Times-News in Twin Falls, Idaho, each received one award.
In newspapers with circulation of 50,000 or more, The Seattle Times received four awards, The Oregonian received three awards and The Spokesman-Review in Spokane and The News Tribune in Tacoma each received two awards.
The Blethen awards were established in 1977 in honor of C.B. Blethen, publisher of The Seattle Times from 1915 to 1941. The special Debby Lowman Award for Distinguished Reporting of Consumer Affairs honors Debby Lowman, a Seattle Times consumer reporter who died of cancer in 1978.
