The paper earned a total of 26 awards, more than any other newspaper in our division. (Our competitors include New Orleans' Gambit Weekly and City Business, Baton Rouge Business Report and The Times of Acadiana.)
The awards are judged annually by press clubs outside of Louisiana, ensuring that nepotism isn't a factor in the judging. And the results this year are particularly gratifying for us, as the judges recognized The Independent Weekly for a wide scope of excellence in every facet of publishing.
The backbone of any reputable newspaper is its hard news reporting, and The Independent Weekly swept the Best News Story competition, with Senior Writer R. Reese Fuller earning first and third place awards, and Editorial Director Leslie Turk garnering second place honors. Staff writer Nathan Stubbs won first place in the Best Continuing Coverage of a Single News Event for his series on the 7th District Congressional race.
Culture and arts and entertainment coverage is as important to The Independent Weekly as our news coverage. Staff writer Erin Zaunbrecher's food writing was a major factor in our first place award for Best Lifestyle Coverage.
Our photography also resonated deeply with the judges. The Independent Weekly Photo Editor Terri Fensel won the Best Photo Feature and Best News Photo competitions, and swept the Individual Feature Photo ' Black and White category. Fensel also won first and second place in the Individual Feature Photo ' Color category, while photographer Travis Gauthier also placed in the Individual Feature Photo ' Color competition. Gauthier took home top honors in the Best Feature Photo category.
Besides our first-place honors, we also won numerous second place, third place and honorable mentions in prestigious categories like General Excellence, Individual Feature Writing, and Community Service/Service to Readers.
Our advertising and promotion department has multiple reasons to be proud, too: it was cited for first place awards in the advertising categories of Multiple Advertiser Page, staff generated black and white ad and Advertising Idea or Promotion for the paper's "Taking Care of Business," a special advertising supplement. Designer Richard Hoffkins' advertising design took home a number of trophies.
It's a tenet of the newspaper business that you're only as good as your last issue, so rest assured that we aren't resting on our laurels. It's been less than two years since we published our debut issue in August 2003, and in some ways, we feel like we're just getting revved up. It's heartening to see our work honored by the LPA, but the whole Independent Weekly staff knows that our readers are the ones who ultimately judge us ' every week. We thank you for your continued readership and support, and welcome your continued feedback, comments and story ideas at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
MAY 20 This post by blogger CB Forgotston draws parallels between Gov. Bobby Jindal and two individuals he probably doesn't want to be aligned with: President Obama and former governor Edwin Edwards. CB says Jindal's trying to jack up the debt ceiling (an Obama play, according to CB) and buy votes from GOP leges who normally wouldn't go for that (an Edwards play, CB says).
MAY 20 Here's a post in the Baptist Message from an alumnus of Louisiana College. The author, Larry Burgess, calls on the leadership of the private school to take care of some pressing problems. Physical plant issues are critical and unaddressed, some faculty make so little they need government health care, and there is an atmosphere that does not encourage honest discussion, he writes. It's time to get things back in order, he says.
MAY 20 This post in Gambit tells of a benefit concert scheduled to raise money for the 19 people shot during a Mother's Day second line on Frenchmen Street in NOLA. Among them was Gambit blogger Deb Cotton, who spoke frequently about violence in the city and reported on the city's second line culture. Gambit's foundation, along with other NOLA non-profits, also is selling t-shirts to raise money for the victims.
MAY 20 Blogger Robert Mann is critical of the personal interest some legislators take in their work here, sharing the comments one NOLA solon made in explaining his decision to vote against a bill that would require people to stop discriminating against female workers. His wife might lose some salary, so he was going to have to vote against the equal pay bill, Conrad Appel said. Appel and everyone who heard him should have been ashamed, but they weren't, and that's what is wrong in that building, Mann argues.
MAY 20 American Press columnist Jim Beam writes about the budget again here, urging kudos for the House and its efforts to try to fix the budget as opposed to passing on a flawed and messy rubber-stamped document as it usually does. The Senate already is poo-pooing the effort, but instead Senators should be trying to find a way to improve it as well, Beam argues. He also has some predictions in here from LABI and CABL.
MAY 20 Here's a link to the photo gallery from Tulane's graduation this past weekend. Dr. John and Allen Toussaint played together and received honorary degrees. The Dalai Lama was so entranced by their performance he got up from his seat and walked across the stage to stand next to them. He even participated in a second line with his own personal, saffron-colored umbrella. To the graduates, he urged them to think about creating a peaceful, hopeful life and society.
MAY 20 This Picayune story questions the rhetoric of NOLA officials who say the city, aside from having a "murder problem," is safe. The talking points generally are that the criminals are killing each other, but everything else is OK. The police chief there says that even Lafayette is more dangerous than NOLA. But crime experts interviewed here say that NOLA's numbers indicate one of two things: either people are so used to violence they don't report it, or somebody's "fudging the numbers."
MAY 20 The Advocate's Mark Ballard writes about some of the background maneuvering that took place during the development of budget alternatives in the Legislature. From Rep. Joel Robideaux being called a "tax and spend liberal" to robo-call influence, Ballard lets us in on some of the work that happens behind the scenes but usually doesn't make it into the Advocate's daily coverage of the session.
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