Times of San Diego award winners included (from left) Alexander Nguyen, Chris Stone, Ken Stone and Chris Jennewein.
Times of San Diego award winners included (from left) Alexander Nguyen, Chris Stone, Ken Stone and Chris Jennewein. Photo by Pauline Repard

Times of San Diego collected 20 awards Tuesday night at the San Diego Press Club’s Excellence in Journalism Awards including Best News Site for the third straight year.

Times contributing photographer Chris Stone won eight awards for writing and photography, including four first-place plaques, while husband Ken, contributing editor, won five awards, including two firsts.

Chris Jennewein, who won three awards, is founding editor and publisher of Times of San Diego, which has now won 89 Press Club awards in five years.

“These awards recognize the hard work, professionalism and creativity of the Times of San Diego team,” Jennewein said. “Over the past five years, Times of San Diego has grown to become a popular and trusted news source in San Diego, with 250,000 readers in a typical month.”

Emceed by retired broadcaster Dennis Morgigno, the 45th annual awards drew hundreds of journalists and public relations professionals to the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation’s Joe and Vi Jacobs Community Center.

“The San Diego Press Club Excellence in Journalism awards shows that solid research, writing, reporting and photography matter more than ever,” said Kristen Castillo, 2018 Press Club president. “I’m proud our organization honors student and professional journalists and public relations professionals in San Diego.”

More than 478 awards were presented in 183 categories, with a record number of entries. Press Club officials said the number of entries has risen 15 percent in the past two years with the addition of new categories such as “travel, domestic” and “travel, international,” rather than one travel category.

Complete list of 2018 San Diego Press Club winners (PDF)
Complete list of winners (PDF)

Karyl Carmignani of San Diego Zoo Global was elected Press Club president for 2018-2019.

Besides Times of San Diego, news outlets with multiple awards included The San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 awards; Southwestern Sun, Southwestern College school newspaper, 22 awards (most among college media); Ranch and Coast Magazine, 22 awards; San Diego Business Journal, 22 awards; La Jolla Light, 12 awards; NBC 7/39, 15 awards (most among TV stations); News Radio 600 KOGO-AM, 10 awards (most among radio stations); San Diego Zoo Global and ZOONOOZ Magazine, eight awards.

Times of San Diego’s 2018 first-place awards

Second-place awards

Third-place awards

Best of show winners for 2018

  • Estephania Baez, Bryan Chillian, “I am a woman and I am an inspiration,” Best Television/Online Video Entry
  • Corey Levitan, “Can’t Burst His Bubble,” La Jolla Light, Best Non-Daily Newspaper Entry
  • Ron James, Mary James, “30 Days in Japan, Wine Dine & Travel Magazine,” Best Magazine Entry
  • Mark Burgess, Welton Jones, Ken Herman, Bill Eadie, Kris Eitland, SanDiegoStory.com, Best Website Entry
  • Tarryn Mento, San Diego Refugees Face Housing Dilemma, KPBS-FM, Best Radio/Podcast Entry
  • Lyndsay Winkley, David Hernandez, Pauline Repard, Platform Collapse at Barrio Logan Gym, The San Diego Union-Tribune, Best Online/Daily Newspaper Entry
  • Ashly McGlone, Sexual Misconduct in San Diego County Public Schools, voiceofsandiego.org, Wildcard Category
  • Ramin Skibba, Freelance Journalist, Rising Star award
  • And Jean Guerrero, Immigration Coverage in the Trump Era, KPBS, Body of Work award.
Harold Keen Award winner Lori Weisberg (left) of The San Diego Union-Tribune and deputy city attorney Sharon Spivak, a former colleague who introduced her.
Harold Keen Award winner Lori Weisberg (left) of The San Diego Union-Tribune and deputy city attorney Sharon Spivak, a former colleague who introduced her. Photo by Ken Stone

The Press Club special awards

  • Lori Weisberg, San Diego Union-Tribune, Harold Keen Award for outstanding contributions in journalism
  • Matthew T. Hall, editorial and opinion director, San Diego Union-Tribune, Jim Reiman Award for excellence in media management
  • And Jack Berkman, president/CEO, Berkman Strategic Communications, Andy Mace Award for career achievements in public relations

Weisberg, a Southern California native, covers tourism and hospitality. She wrote for the Vista Press and Orange County Register before joining the U-T in 1980.

Weisberg’s award is named after Harold Keen, who anchored San Diego’s first television news broadcast in 1949 and was described by colleagues as the dean of San Diego journalists.

Keen arrived in San Diego in 1936 as a reporter for The San Diego Sun. He later worked for the San Diego Union, San Diego Magazine and KFMB-TV/Channel 8. He passed away in 1981.

Hall manages the newspaper’s Ideas and Opinion section, writing and editing editorials, and overseeing op-ed commentary, letters to the editor and a blog called “The Conversation,” which uses social media and the Internet to report the news of the day.

Hall’s award is named after Jim Reiman, who served for many years as assistant news director at KGTV-TV/Channel 10.

Berkman, with 40 years of experience in PR, is a member of the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) College of Fellows and has won more than 70 Bernays awards from the San Diego PRSA chapter, plus the national PRSA Silver Anvil Award.

Berkman’s award is named after Andy Mace, former public relations manager at Pacific Telephone in San Diego. In 1971, Mace is credited with the idea of starting the San Diego Press Club.

Also at the event, two college students were presented scholarships — Lauren Mapp, San Diego State University, $2,500 Joe Lipper Scholarship, and Katy Stegall, Southwestern College, $1,000 scholarship from the San Diego Press Club Foundation.

Both have been active at their student newspapers. Mapp has served as editor of The Mesa Press at Mesa College and as a staff writer and photographer at The Daily Aztec at SDSU. Stegall has reported for The SWC Sun.