City Paper repeats win as best big weekly newspaper in the state

For the second year in a row, City Paper won the “Sweepstakes Award” for large weekly newspapers in the Professional Keystone Press Awards contest sponsored by the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association.

City Paper won 11 awards — including seven first-place awards — in categories ranging from news to features to page design.

In addition, Senior Staff Writer Emily Guendelsberger won a second-place award for Distinguished Writing in weekly publications. Her specialty award was for a selection of stories, including her two-part series, “A Bitter End,” about a nurse’s yearlong struggle to clear her name after she was charged with helping her father die.

“We were happy to see such a strong showing in so many categories,” said Editor in Chief Lillian Swanson. “It gives us good momentum going forward. The paper continues to evolve, as shown by our new design and our new local comic series unveiled this week.”

The first-place winners were:

—  Series. Emily Guendelsberger. Teachers anonymous.
—  Feature story. Natalie Pompilio. “Forgiveness.”
—  Investigative. Ryan Briggs. “Troubles at a politically connected clinic.”
—  News Feature story. Emily Guendelsberger. “A Bitter End”
—  News beat reporting. Daniel Denvir. Criminal justice beat.
—  Feature beat reporting. Mikala Jamison. A selection of her articles.
—  Front page design. Brenna Adams and Jenni Betz.

The second-place honors went to:

— Personality profile. Mikala Jamison. A profile of Clay Studio’s new leader.
— News photo. Maria Pouchnikova. “Forgiveness.”
— Video story. Daniel Denvir and Emily Guendelsberger. A Philly guard beats up an inmate, but the inmate is charged.

Honorable mention:

— Ongoing news coverage. Daniel Denvir. Philly public schools.

The awards will be presented at the annual PNA banquet, held this year on May 30 in Gettysburg.