2000 C.B. Blethen Memorial Awards Presented At 80th Annual PNNA Meeting

Business Wire, Nov 3, 2000

Business Editors

VANCOUVER, B.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 3, 2000

The 2000 C.B. Blethen Memorial Awards for Distinguished Newspaper Reporting were presented to writers from 12 regional daily newspapers on November 2.

For the 24th consecutive year, the awards were given in honor of C.B. Blethen, publisher of The Seattle Times for 26 years, from 1915 to 1941. Frank Blethen, current publisher of The Seattle Times, presented the awards at the annual meeting of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association (PNNA) in Vancouver, British Columbia. The awards, which are among the most prestigious in the region, include plaques and cash prizes donated by The Seattle Times for first and second place winners. A total of $173,470 has been awarded during the program's history.

PNNA daily newspaper members in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Alaska, Alberta and British Columbia are eligible to enter the contest, which is administered by the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Foundation. Judges are top news executives from respected daily newspapers outside the PNNA area.

The awards honor newspapers and reporters from two circulation divisions (over 50,000 circulation and under 50,000 circulation) in five categories: deadline reporting, feature writing, enterprise reporting, investigative reporting and distinguished coverage of diversity issues. In the competition for the Debby Lowman Award for distinguished consumer-affairs reporting, all entrants compete together, regardless of circulation. This special award honors Debby Lowman, former Seattle Times consumer reporter who died of cancer in 1978.

Winners of the 2000 C.B. Blethen Awards are:

Distinguished Deadline Reporting

Under 50,000 circulation: 1. Staff, The Bellingham Herald, Bellingham, WA, "Blast stuns city." 2. Staff, Yakima Herald-Republic, Yakima, WA, "Fire claims St. Joseph's." Over 50,000 circulation: 1. Staff, The Oregonian, Portland, OR, New Carissa coverage. 2. Staff, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle, WA, Alaska Airlines crash.

Distinguished Feature Writing

Under 50,000 circulation: 1. John Harris, The Bellingham Herald, Bellingham, WA, "Camp lets kids flee grip of grief" and "Death in the family." 2. Matt Cooper, Yakima Herald-Republic, Yakima, WA, "Floyd's lonesome walk." Over 50,000 circulation: 1. David Quigg, The News Tribune, Tacoma, WA, "Letter to Makenzie." 2. Alex Tizon, The Seattle Times, Seattle, WA, "In memory."

Distinguished Enterprise Reporting

Under 50,000 circulation: 1.Eric Newhouse, Great Falls Tribune, Great Falls, MT, "Alcohol: Cradle to grave." 2. James Sinks, The Bulletin, Bend, OR, "The Forest Plan: Good intentions, poor results." Over 50,000 circulation: 1. Tom Hallman Jr., The Oregonian, Portland, OR, "The Player." 2. Scott Sunde, Michael Paulson, Phuong Le, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle, WA, "Pipelines: America's hidden hazards."

Distinguished Investigative Reporting

Under 50,000 circulation: 1. Wayne Hoffman, Idaho Press-Tribune, Nampa, ID, "No place like home." 2. John Hughes and Robert Saltvig, The Daily World, Aberdeen, WA, "Who killed Laura Law." Over 50,000 circulation: 1. Brent Walth and Alex Pulaski, The Oregonian, Portland, OR, "The politics of pesticides." 2. Eric Nalder, Anne Koch and Kim Barker, The Seattle Times, Seattle, WA, "No justice for `throwaway' people."

Distinguished Coverage of Diversity

Under 50,000 circulation: 1. Staff, The Olympian, Olympia, WA, for a range of stories. 2. Eric Green, Great Falls Tribune, Great Falls, MT, for a range of stories. Over 50,000 circulation: 1. Staff, The Seattle Times, Seattle, WA, for a range of stories. 2. Lise Olsen, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle, WA, "Locked in limbo (series)."

Debby Lowman Award

All circulations: 1. Eric Hoover Barnett, Richard Hill, Joe Rojas-Burke, The Oregonian, Portland, OR, "The puzzle of pain." 2. Elaine Williams, Lewiston Morning Tribune, Lewiston, ID, "Living life in advance."

The Seattle Times Company is a 104-year-old locally owned family business. Founded in 1896 by Alden J. Blethen, The Seattle Times is a fourth and fifth generation family business. The family's flagship newspaper, The Seattle Times, is the largest daily newspaper in Washington state (220,000 circulation) and the largest Sunday newspaper in the Northwest (502,000). Other Blethen-owned newspapers in Washington state are the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, the Yakima Herald-Republic and the Issaquah Press. The company also owns the Blethen Maine Newspapers: The Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram; Kennebec Journal, in Augusta; Morning Sentinel, in Waterville; and Coastal Journal, in Bath. The company owns four Web sites: seattletimes.com, NWclassifieds.com, NWsource.com and MaineToday.com.