The Pleasanton Weekly won the prestigious first-place award for Editorial Commentary among all California weekly newspapers in its circulation category last Saturday at the annual California Newspaper Publishers Association conference in Universal City. The paper also took second place statewide for feature stories in its Living Section.
The awards were among those given by the CNPA in its 2005 Better Newspapers Contest, an annual statewide competition for daily and weekly newspapers in specific subject categories, such as sports, editorials, spot news and many more. Besides separating out daily and weekly newspapers, it also pits dailies and weeklies against each other in several circulation categories ranging from those with circulation from 4,300 and under to 200,000 and above. For the Pleasanton Weekly, which competed in the 11,001 to 25,000 circulation category, the first place Editorial Commentary award was for an editorial that was published May 6, 2005. Entitled “Just say no to campaign buttons in schools,” it took the position that Pleasanton teachers should not wear political campaign buttons in the classroom.
The Lifestyle Features award went for stories and the layout of the Pleasanton Weekly Living sections published on Sept. 9 and Sept. 16, 2005. The sections were the product of Rebecca Guyon with layout and design by Shannon Corey and the design team of Trina Cannon, Steve Bruzenak, James Greenfield and Jason Lind.
At the same time, the Pleasanton Weekly received Certificates of Achievement from the CNPA in its circulation category in three areas:
* Business or Financial Story: “After the dust has settled” (1/21/05), about the aftermath of the purchase of PeopleSoft by Oracle Corp.
* Investigative or Enterprise Reporting: “Pleasanton looks to ban marijuana clinics” (7/15/05), about a Police Department proposal to ban marijuana clinics in Pleasanton.
* Local Spot News: “The Amador Streaker” (9/30/05), about an Amador Valley High School senior who allegedly was a streaker at a school football game.
Other newspapers in the Embarcadero Publishing Company’s weekly newspaper group also won CNPA awards, including the Palo Alto Weekly which won the first-place award for general excellence among all large non-daily papers in California. It was the Palo Alto paper’s fourth first place general excellence award in the past seven years. In competition with other weekly newspapers in its 25,000 and above circulation category, the Palo Alto Weekly also won nine first and second place awards, more than any other weekly newspaper.
In this same circulation category, Embarcadero’s Pacific Sun weekly newspaper in Marin County won second place for a feature story.
Two other Embarcadero newspapers on the Peninsula–the Almanac in south San Mateo County and the Mountain View Voice, which competed in the 11,001 to 25,000 circulation category–also won top awards. The Voice received a first-place award in the Freedom of Information category, as well as second place awards for sports and environmental stories and a feature photo.
The Almanac placed first for Public Service Reporting, and second place awards for its editorial pages and Business/Financial reporting.
