Staffers at The Columbian have been honored for their work with 10 awards, including four first-place awards, in a multi-state contest sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists.
The awards, which cover work done in 2021, came in a competition with similarly sized newsrooms in the print, online and broadcast media in Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon.
Among the first place awards was an award for education reporting by Meg Wochnick for her story, “Distance learning has many Clark County students not making the grade.”
Colleen Keller was honored with a first place award for editorial and commentary writing for a selection of “In our view” editorial submissions.
The Columbian’s copy desk won a number of awards, sweeping the competition in all categories.
Merridee Hanson won first place for print page design for a selection of her work and second place for graphics and illustration.
Romana Wood won first place for graphics and illustration.
Amy Libby won second place for print page design.
Amanda Cowan won second place for feature photography for her photo “Last Day COVID School.”
Will Campbell won two writing awards, including second place in environment and natural disaster reporting for his story “From dust to dust — to compost” and second place for technology, business and economics reporting for his story “Herbert J. paved the way.”
Dylan Jefferies tied for second place in poverty and homelessness reporting for his story “Renovation of former Value Motel paves long road to recovery.” He tied for second with a story from a reporter from the Yakima Herald-Republic.
