AURORA | The Aurora Sentinel was honored Saturday, May 14, with a dozen awards during the Colorado Press Association’s annual awards banquet, including eight first-place honors.
In addition, the Aurora Sentinel picked up additional honors from the Associated Press for stories and photos in 2015.
“While our staff prides itself on doing the work itself, the CPA honors are a testament to the quality of journalism we pursue each week,” said Sentinel Managing Editor Chris Harrop after the ceremony. “And every member of the staff – editorial, advertising and beyond – helps us continue to achieve those goals.”
Three of the Sentinel‘s eight first-place honors came from reporting on the Aurora theater shooting trial in 2015. The reporting staff, led by reporter Brandon Johansson, won top honors in the Best Sustained Coverage category for the trial coverage. As one judge’s comments put it, “the sheer breadth of coverage made this entry hard to deny.” Both Johansson and reporter Quincy Snowdon won first place for Best Deadline News Reporting for their coverage of the death penalty sentencing decision. And the staff also took top honors for Use of Social Media in Breaking News for Twitter and other breaking news coverage from the trial.
The other first-place awards were given to:
- Former photo editor Marla Keown, who won in Best News Photograph for her photo of the protest of an unarmed man’s shooting death by an Aurora police officer.
- Editor Dave Perry, who was honored for Best Editorial Writing and Best Humorous Column Writing.
- Managing Editor Chris Harrop, for Best Headline Writing.
- Photo Editor Gabriel Christus, for Best Photography Portfolio.
Additionally, Perry won a second-place award for Best Serious Column Writing. Photographer Trevor Davis won second place in the Best News Photograph category. Sports Editor Courtney Oakes and Christus won second place in Best Multimedia for their Hog Wars coverage, and AuroraSentinel.com was honored with a second-place award for Best Weekly Website.
The Associated Press honored Aurora Sentinel photographer Gabriel Christus and reporters Quincy Snowden and Brandon Johansson for deadline stories and photos from coverage of the Aurora theater shooting trial verdict.
Editor Dave Perry and Managing Editor Chris Harrop were honored for headline writing. Christus was also honored for sports photography.