Channel 4's Jeremy Finley wins 2010 IRE award for flood investigation

Congratulations to Jeremy Finley of WSMV-Channel 4, who won has won the 2010 IRE award in the category of "breaking news investigations" for all media for his flood-related report called "A Failure to Warn."

Jeremy was also a finalist in the television category for below-Top-20 markets with his report "Deception of the Desperate."

Channel 5 takes two first places in Nat'l Headliner Awards

Congrats to our Tennessee winners in the 2011 National Headliner Awards!

Jennifer Kraus and Bryan Staples of WTVF-Channel 5 took first place in the broadcast category for business and consumer reporting for their report "veteran support organization." And Channel 5's Ben Hall and Iain Montgomery took first place in the environmental reporting category for "Big Coal's Political Power."

More winners:

• Local interest column on variety of subjects, 2nd place, for (my friend and former co-worker) Wendi C. Thomas of the Commercial Appeal.
• Individual sports column, first place, went to Geoff Calkins of the Commercial Appeal.
• Education writing, 2nd place, went to (more friends and former co-workers) Jaime Sarrio and Brad Schrade of The Tennessean. 

See all the recipients here.

Four Nashville stations to share Governor's Award for flood coverage

Round-the-clock coverage of Nashville's 2010 floods have earned Nashville's four commercial television stations the highest honor given out by the people who give out the Emmys.

WKRN, WSMV, WTVF and WZTV will receive the Governors’ Award, the highest honor from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences when it holds the Mid-South Emmys awards ceremony Jan. 29.

Among the numerous nominations received by the major stations for their journalistic output in 2010, WKRN, WSMV and WTVF were also nominated for the news excellence Emmy.

The awards ceremony will be held at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. RSVP by Jan. 15. More info is available on the academy's Nashville chapter's Web site.

Region's best named in collegiate journalism

The winners of the Mark of Excellence competition for college journalists from our SPJ region (Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana) were given their certificates at the regional conference this past weekend in Knoxville. Congrats to the UT Daily Beacon, which came in second in the category for all-around student newspaper (bested by the LSU Daily Reveille). See the complete list of winners here.

April 15 deadline to nominate for outstanding pro member, Wells Key

Here's the word from SPJ HQ:

 

SPJ Members: We Need Your Help!

 

Each year, we are proud to honor SPJ members who go above and beyond for the journalism profession and for the organization. If you know one or more of those individuals, please help us recognize them by submitting nominations for the following awards: the Howard S. Dubin Outstanding Pro Member Award and the Wells Memorial Key. 

The postmark deadline to nominate candidates is Thursday, April 15.

Awards will be presented at the 2010 SPJ National Convention in Las Vegas! If you have any questions, contact Awards Coordinator Lauren Rochester at awards@spj.org or at (317) 927-8000 ext. 210.

Wells Memorial KeyEach year, a member who is judged to have served the Society in the most outstanding fashion during the preceding year or over a period of years is presented SPJ's highest honor for a member, the Wells Memorial Key. Read more information online about the award and how to nominate a candidate.

Howard S. Dubin Outstanding Pro Member Award
Howard Dubin is a current SPJ member whose outstanding membership shines through his service to the Society, nationally and at the grassroots level. SPJ is honored to give this award annually to a member who is exceptionally dedication to the mission of the organization. Read more information online about the award and how to nominate a candidate.

Channel 5 racks up the Emmys

WTVF-Channel 5 took home 15 regional Emmys Saturday night, including news excellence, best evening newscast and best investigative report.

The award for best investigative report went to Phil Williams' project on Davidson County General Sessions Court. Winning along with Williams were Bryan Staples and Kevin Wisniewski.

WTVF also had a second nomination in that batch as well.

WKRN-Channel 2 won for best daytime newscast and for best continuing coverage over a 24-hour period for coverage of the Good Friday tornadoes. Channel 4, which also had a nomination in the investigative reporting category, won for best continuing coverage of weather, also for the Good Friday tornadoes.

The Renaissance Center in Dickson and Bohan Advertising each took home two Emmys. WSMV-Channel 4, Nashville Public Television and Vanderbilt University News Service won one a piece. And WKRN's Anne Holt presented the Governor's Award to the Freedom Forum.

NewsChannel 5 wins the Pulitzer of TV news

My apologies to the Channel 5 folks for not having posted this earlier. Here's a snippet from the story on their site:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- WTVF-NewsChannel 5 has been awarded one of broadcast journalism's highest honors, the prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, for the station's investigation of Nashville's General Sessions Court system, it was announced Thursday.

That exclusive investigation – "NewsChannel 5 Investigates: General Sessions Court" -- exposed judges and court employees abusing their positions, as well as a judicial system in which ticket fixing and political favoritism was rampant. The project was led by chief investigative reporter Phil Williams, along with photojournalist Bryan Staples and producer Kevin Wisniewski.

Channel 5 wins National Press Club Award

Jennifer Kraus, Bryan Staples, Kevin Wisniewski and Mike Rose of NewsChannel 5 won the National Press Club Award in the broadcast category for consumer journalism for "An Alarming Failure." From the NPC Web site:

Nashville’s WTVF News Channel 5 won the NPC’s Consumer Journalism Award broadcast category for “An Alarming Failure,” a ground-breaking examination of the differences between the popular ionization-type smoke detector and the photoelectric model in a smoky fire.  The stories resulted in legislation being introduced in Tennessee banning the installation of ionization smoke detectors in new homes.

NPT, WTVF take lead in regional Emmy count

Nashville Public Television and WTVF-Channel 5 were the biggest local winners at the Midsouth Regional Emmys given out last Saturday.

NPT took 11 Emmys, including for historical and cultural documentaries, and historic or cultural program/special. WTVF took five, including for news excellence, investigative report for "Stories of Abuse," and business/consumer report.

WKRN-Channel 2 took three Emmys, and WSMV-Channel 4, WZTV-Channel 17, Vanderbilt University News Service and the Renaissance Center took two each.

Read the complete list of winners here.

Leaf-Chronicle, Tennessean, Southern Standard take top newspaper awards from TPA

From the TPA press release:

The Leaf-Chronicle also earned the most first-place honors with eight. It won for make-up and appearance, local features, best personal humor column, best spot news story, best education reporting, investigative reporting, public service and best sports photograph.

Scene's Woods is finalist for national honor

The Nashville Scene's Jeff Woods is a finalist for the new public service category in the 2008 AltWeekly Awards. The prize "recognizes the impact that stories and series done by member publications have had on their communities." He'll compete in a group with the Fort Worth Weekly, the Jackson Free Press, and the Weekly Alibi.

Scene Editor Liz Garrigan lauded Woods' work as "kicking tail":

In fact, I named the package of pieces "Mayor Bubba Smackdown," and we argued to the judges that the Nashville Scene provided a public service to Nashvillians by reporting and editorializing over several months' time that Bob Clement was far from the best choice to run this $1.8 billion major American city. An independent panel of judges apparently agrees, though the best we can hope for is probably third place as these types of journalism awards typically go to papers discovering that corporations are poisoning poor people, not to grumpy, unshaven wretches singularly obsessed with picking on political hacks desperately in search of power.