Florida Courier wins more awards for writing, design

July 26, 2012 Filed under FLORIDA, FRONT PAGE Posted by admin

FROM STAFF REPORTS

The Florida Courier continued its six-year-long winning streak and has racked up more awards from the Florida Press Association (FPA) and the Society of Professional Journalists (SBJ).

The Florida Courier took first place from the SBJ, one of the country’s leading journalism organizations, for a series about Africa, and won two awards this month in FPA’s annual Better Weekly Newspaper Contest. The Florida Courier’s sister paper, the Daytona Times, also won a first-place award.

Charles W. Cherry II, publisher of the newspapers, won first place in the SBJ’s annual Green Eyeshade Awards for his “Back to Africa’’ series published last year in the Florida Courier. He won in the non-dailies category for Travel Writing.

Sports, faith awards
The Florida Courier’s awards from the FPA included first place for Sports Page or Section in the Open Circulation Division by sports writer Andreas Butler and Angela van Emmerik, presentation editor and page designer. The Florida Courier also took second place in the Feature Story: Non-Profile category for the Back to Africa series by Cherry.

James Harper, who writes for the Daytona Times and Florida Courier, took first place in the Faith and Family Reporting category for a story that appeared in the Daytona Times titled “The Doors of the Church are Closed.’’ The story focused on the events that led to the foreclosure of a predominantly Black church in Daytona Beach.

The FPA awards were presented during the Southeastern Press Convention held July 5-7 in Destin. The recognition is the latest in a number of state and national awards and recognition that the Florida Courier, Florida’s largest Black-owned newspaper, has won from the Florida Press Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Poynter Center, and the National Association of Black Journalists for its work since its statewide launch in 2006.

“As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said ‘Praise is like Vitamin A to the ego, even when you don’t deserve it and even if you don’t believe it,’” Cherry exclaimed. “Winning anything always feels good, and publishing two weekly newspapers is a successful collaborative effort involving writers, photographers, designers, printers, distributors, sales staff, the back office and ownership. Everyone on our team shares these awards.”

Statewide competition
The Florida Press Association includes all of the Florida’s daily newspapers and many of the state’s weekly newspapers in its membership. The Florida Courier completed in categories for newspapers with circulations of 15,000 or more, while the Daytona Times competed against newspapers with circulations under 7,000.

For the first time, five states – Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi – came together for a multi-state convention. In addition to members of the Florida Press Association, the Alabama Press Association, Florida Society of News Editors, Georgia Press Association, Louisiana Press Association and Mississippi Press Association participated in the convention.