Lee Enterprises Honors 2015 President’s Awards Winners
November 12 2015 - 11:35AM
Business Wire
Mary Junck, chairman, president and chief executive officer of
Lee Enterprises, Incorporated (NYSE: LEE), announced today the
winners of 2015 Lee President’s Awards for outstanding journalism,
innovation and spirit.
“The winners of these awards represent only a sample of the
outstanding work every day across Lee,” she said. “In recognizing
the distinguished efforts of these winners, we also recognize all
of the exceptional work done throughout the year for the readers,
advertisers and communities we serve.”
EXCELLENCE IN NEWS
The news award recognizes outstanding achievement in any aspect
of print and online journalism, from reporting and writing to
photography, video, graphics and presentation.
Receiving awards:
- Arizona Daily Star in Tucson for
examining the future of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. As the Air
Force pushed Congress to endorse a process that would lead to base
realignments and closures, it also announced plans to retire the
Davis-Monthan’s primary flying mission, the A-10. Reporters Sarah
Garrecht Gassen and David Wichner examined the future of the base
and documented how other communities support and protect the bases
essential to their local economies. Two editorials laid out the
Star's prescription for change: a prescription that took hold and
is coming to fruition. Details.
- Billings Gazette in Billings,
Montana. Reporter Zach Benoit and photographer Hannah Potes covered
the life of Alejandro Gonzalez for the 96 minutes he lived,
chronicling one family's determination to go through with having a
child with a fatal medical condition. The Gazette staff was allowed
intimate access in order to document the agony of an infant death —
and the strength of a family. Details.
- Quad City Times in Davenport,
Iowa, for “The Rise and Fall of Valley Bank,” a seven-part
investigative series by reporter Alma Gaul, which chronicled the
issues that led to state banking regulators closing down the bank
in 2014, with a loss of more than $59 million to the FDIC fund.
Through deep reporting on federal documents and numerous interviews
with banking officials and shareholders, Gaul’s series uncovered
allegations of mismanagement, fraudulent loan practices and a
secretive culture that was centered on one man, the bank’s CEO.
Details.
- Rapid City Journal in South
Dakota for embarking on a project to spark a public discussion on
the future of medical marijuana regulation. The three-day package,
supported by outstanding photojournalism, offers a very personal
look into legal risks of those who use the drug and informative
reporting intended to help frame a more intelligent debate on
medical marijuana. Details.
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch for
doggedly fighting for public records to expose abuses in the St.
Louis County court system. The abuses gravely impact the lives of
predominantly low-income citizens and helped fuel some of the
distrust that exploded after the shooting of Michael Brown in
Ferguson, Missouri. The discoveries include ticketing schemes to
fund municipalities and barriers in a justice system that side with
secrecy and favor the well-connected. The revelations in the
extensive coverage have helped drive legislation to begin putting
significant reforms into place. Details.
- Wisconsin State Journal in
Madison for its investigation of the Wisconsin Economic Development
Corporation. The work of reporters Matthew DeFour and Dee J. Hall
with state editor Mark Pitsch revealed that the governor’s
signature economic development agency gave top campaign donors
unsecured deals that jeopardized its job creation mission and the
public trust. The investigation produced results two days before it
was published. Knowing of the State Journal’s investigation, the
governor called for the end of the WEDC loan program. Details.
Judges for Excellence in News were Richard Cole, dean emeritus
of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Roy Peter Clark,
author and Poynter Institute instructor; Suki Dardarian, senior
managing editor and Vice President at the Minneapolis StarTribune;
Richard A. Green, president and publisher of Enquirer Media and a
regional group president for the Gannett Co.; and Mark Katches,
editor of The Oregonian.
INNOVATION
The innovation award recognizes an individual or team for
creating or significantly advancing an idea that drives revenue,
builds audiences or serves customers better.
Receiving awards:
- The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and
the Lincoln Journal Star, in Lincoln, Nebraska, for greatly
expanding high-profile events through a vast suite of print and
digital marketing tools. Focusing on innovative events of high
community interest such as food and entertainment,
business-to-business and philanthropy, both enterprises connected
with larger audiences and more advertisers in new ways, creating
new revenue streams.
- The Lincoln Journal Star, in
Lincoln, Nebraska, and Journal Gazette & Times-Courier
in Mattoon and Charleston, Illinois, for developing model
initiatives to reach more advertising customers. In Lincoln, a
Retail Revitalization task force led to a re-aligned sales team
armed with big ideas and solutions to help businesses reach more of
the Journal Star’s large audiences. In Mattoon and Charleston, a
high-profile shop-local campaign included a 32-page special
section. It resonated with readers and advertisers, as well as
generated significant incremental revenue for the Journal Gazette
& Times-Courier.
- The Wisconsin State Journal in
Madison, Wisconsin, for remarkable revenue growth in the
industry-challenged category of automotive advertising. Beginning
with an “automotive summit” with automotive dealership general
managers to educate and set expectations, the team at the WSJ
undertook a significant overhaul of the classified product bundles
and extensively redesigned the section itself to improve color and
section front availability. Using this momentum, they targeted
inactive dealerships and looked to grow existing partnerships
through creative marketing ideas and expanded digital advertising
using Amplified Digital. All resulted in double-digit growth in
Madison.
Honorable mention was awarded to TownNews.com for successfully
launching IQ a data management program that will greatly enhance
programmatic advertising revenue while improving audience
engagement. Also receiving honorable mention is the Casper
Star-Tribune for “They Served with Honor: Vietnam,” a project
recognizing Wyoming's 16,000 Vietnam veterans.
The judges also chose two additional winners specifically
recognizing innovation for growth of audience.
Receiving awards:
- The Pantagraph in Bloomington,
Illinois, for the launch of a pilot website in collaboration with
Newspapers.com, a division of Ancestry. The Pantagraph was the
first newspaper in the nation to enter into such a partnership,
providing users with an easily searchable database of historic
newspaper content and preserving it for future generations.
- The Post-Star in Glens Falls,
New York, for its initiative to shoot photos and publish galleries
for each of the high school proms in the region. During a two-month
period, the newspaper crew attended proms at 21 local high schools.
The galleries, which were heavily promoted through social media,
created a high volume of page views with many coming from people
younger than eighteen.
Honorable mention for growth of audience was given to the
Wisconsin State Journal for two special projects, 12 Gifts to Our
Readers” and “7 Days of Summer.” The Billings Gazette in Montana
received honorable mention for the appointment of a newsroom
digital producer exclusively focused on developing, repackaging and
launching content to grow targeted digital audiences.
Judges for the innovation category were Brad Harmon, vice
president of publishing at GateHouse Media, Inc.; Barbara Cohen,
president and founder of Kannon Consulting; and Herbert W. Moloney
III, an independent director of Lee and longtime advertising and
publishing executive.
LEE SPIRIT
The Lee Spirit Award recognizes outstanding personal commitment
to our company and the people we serve.
Being honored is:
- Greg Brownell, sports editor for
the Post-Star in Glens Falls, New York. In his 33-year career with
the Post-Star, Brownell has proven himself an exceptional leader
both inside and outside the newsroom. As an editor, he has led the
Glens Falls sports section to national recognition while helping
develop the careers of many young journalists. His commitment to
the Post-Star and its readers has included covering late-night
breaking news, taking countless calls from customers and delivering
a missed newspaper if needed. In the community, Brownell annually
hosts a penalty shot challenge as part of the “Power of Pink”
soccer game. Proceeds from his challenge are donated to breast
cancer research.
ABOUT LEE
Lee Enterprises is a leading provider of local news and
information, and a major platform for advertising, in its markets,
with 46 daily newspapers and a joint interest in four others,
rapidly growing digital products and nearly 300 specialty
publications in 22 states. Lee's newspapers have circulation of 1.0
million daily and 1.4 million Sunday, reaching more than three
million readers in print alone. Lee's markets include St. Louis,
MO; Lincoln, NE; Madison, WI; Davenport, IA; Billings, MT;
Bloomington, IL; and Tucson, AZ. Lee Common Stock is traded on the
New York Stock Exchange under the symbol LEE. For more information
about Lee, please visit www.lee.net.
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Lee Enterprises, IncorporatedCharles Arms, 563-383-2100Director
of CommunicationsIR@lee.net
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