Pleasanton Weekly wins key awards in statewide “Better Newspapers” contest

The Pleasanton Weekly’s staff was awarded key prizes for its features, sports and commentary articles in 2015 by the California Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspapers contest Saturday.

The awards were part of a suite of wins for newspapers in various circulation categories from major large city dailies to those serving small mountain communities.

The Pleasanton Weekly competed in the 11,001-25,000 circulation category.

Professionals in the newspaper industry give the annual awards to media outlets. Journalists from states outside of California select the winners from among daily, weekly and school newspapers out of thousands of entries.

The Weekly won first place for Best Editorial Comment for an editorial by Publisher Gina Channell entitled “Pleasanton Police Department’s unwarranted silence unacceptable.”

The editorial criticized the department for its failure to comment on the death of 19-year-old San Jose resident John Deming Jr., who was shot and killed by Pleasanton Police Officer Daniel Kunkel outside an auto dealership in Pleasanton.

Other award winners were a sports features story by Associate Editor Jeremy Walsh and the paper’s Arts and Entertainment coverage by Tri Valley Life editor Dolores Fox Ciardelli.

In addition, individual Weekly staff members received awards in the “Breaking News” category for a story “Fatal officer-involved shooting in Pleasanton” by staff reporter Meredith Bauer and for several “Around Pleasanton” columns by Editor Jeb Bing.

Walsh also received a Certificate of Merit in the California Teachers Association’s John Swett Awards for Media Excellence competition for his coverage of negotiations last year between the San Ramon Valley Unified School District and its teachers union.

The story appeared online in March 2015. There were 15 award winners and 14 certificates of merit in the category in the CTA competition.