“Mexico Under Siege” wins Overseas Press Club honors

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Here’s the announcement to staff from Editor Russ Stanton:

Colleagues:

“Mexico Under Siege,” our innovative and deeply reported chronicle of the narco-violence afflicting our southern neighbor and our own border region, has collected a fresh batch of honors.

The Overseas Press Club of America last night bestowed its prestigious Hal Boyle Award for newspaper reporting to “Mexico Under Siege,” along with a special citation for exceptional online coverage of international affairs.

“Mexico” has also snared a Sigma Delta Chi Award for online reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists.

This remarkable multimedia project, which features video, interactive graphics and a Q&A blog on which staffers have answered readers’ questions in English and Spanish, previously won the web reporting prize in the Scripps Howard National Journalism competition.

It’s rare to see a piece of journalism lauded for both print and online excellence, and it’s a testament to the strides we’ve made toward becoming a multi-platform newsroom. It’s also time to salute those responsible for this terrific project.

--Editing. Asst. California Editor Geoff Mohan has directed the series from the outset, with daily editing help from the Foreign and Metro desks.
--Reporting. Tracy Wilkinson and Ken Ellingwood in our Mexico City bureau, Rich Marosi in San Diego and Sam Quinones in Los Angeles have been the primary writers of the series; at least 10 other staffers have contributed stories to the effort.
--latimes.com/Database team. Sean Connelley, Stephanie Ferrell, Michael McGehee, Katy Newton and Ben Welsh developed the outstanding interactive package.
--Photo/video. Don Bartletti has been the primary photographer on the project and Deborah Bonello handled video, with editing assistance from Alan Hagman (online) , Mary Cooney (print) and Scott Anger (video).
--Graphics. Tom Reinken, Lorena Iniguez, Raul Ranoa and Thomas Lauder produced the informational graphics for both print and online.
--Design. Derek Simmons and Kelli Sullivan have overseen the design efforts.
--Copy desk. Our crack troops have gang-tackled this one, with Arnold Paradise leading the charge.
You can find this wonderful piece of journalism at www.latimes.com/siege.

In addition, the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Big Burn” series on wildfires won a Sigma Delta Chi Award for informational graphics. The award recognizes the hand-drawn illustrations, maps and other graphics that gave the series such a distinctive look and helped makes its wealth of detail about firefighting tactics and costs accessible to readers.

Congratulations to everyone.

Russ Stanton
Editor