Staffers at The Columbian have been honored for their work with nine awards for excellence in the annual five-state regional contest sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists.
The awards include four first-place and five second-place awards in the contest’s medium-sized newsroom category.
Among the first-place award winners, Amanda Cowan won in feature photography for her “Health Care Worker Tribute” photo.
She also won a second-place award for general news photography for “Peterson BLM Vigil” and a second-place award for portrait photography for “COVID homeless camp.”
Meg Wochnick and Joshua Hart were honored with a first-place award for sports reporting for the story “Virus’s Blindside Block.”
Colleen Keller was honored with a first-place award for editorial and commentary writing based on a portfolio of her work.
Amy Libby was honored with a first-place award for print page design based on a portfolio of her work.
Among second-place award winners, Merridee Hanson was honored for print page design based on a portfolio of her work.
Tim Martinez was honored with a second-place award for a sports column based on a portfolio of his work.
Jessica Prokop was honored with a second-place award for crime and law enforcement writing with her story “Confined with COVID-19?”
The contest accepts entries from news organizations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.
