SPJ Top of the Rockies results here

SPJ Colorado Pro chapter president Dennis Huspeni, left congratulates Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Dave Philipps of The (Colorado Springs) Gazette, who received the Journalist of the Year award at the Top of the Rockies Awards presentation.

What a fantastic night at the Denver Press Club Friday for the SPJ Region 9 Top of the Rockies journalism competition Awards reception. Congratulations to all the winners (all 450 of you!) Here the results in an Excel file. judgments-results-528.1395761152

We will mail certificates to you folks who couldn’t make it (hopefully in the next week). Thanks to everyone for making it a great contest.

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Dave Philipps of The (Colorado Springs) Gazette received the Journalist of the Year award Friday from the Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

The award was one of four special honors announced at the chapter’s annual awards ceremony at the Denver Press Club. The contest awards went to journalists in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Philipps won the 2014 Pulitzer on April 14 for his series “Other Than Honorable” that examined how soldiers injured during war were being discharged with no benefits. The SPJ award was for the same stories which were published in The Gazette in May 2013.

“Dave Philipps would be the first to tell you there are many others deserving of this award. But his work exemplifies the best of what we all endeavor to do,” said Jim Anderson , news editor Denver’s AP bureau and Colorado Pro board member.

“As the Gazette put it in an editorial on Dave’s work: ‘Philipps is just the latest in a distinguished line of reporters proving that investigative journalism is alive, well and in demand. … When the Pulitzer Committee chooses the best in mass communication, it looks for examples of research and storytelling that expose truth and bring about constructive public policy,” Anderson said. “Dave Philipps has done just that.”

7News received the SPJ First Amendment Award for the Denver TV station’s ongoing series titled “Contrary to the Public Interest” about problems with Colorado’s open records laws.

“It was an ambitious, and important, project. During months of investigations, Channel 7 found that — while Colorado’s open records laws are supposed to keep government officials accountable — getting documents can mean paying huge fees or becoming tangled in expensive legal battles,” said Cara DeGette, board member.

SPJ’s Keeper of the Flame Award, which recognizes a distinguished career in journalism, went to Westword editor Patty Calhoun.

“Westword, which started 37 years ago as a feisty alternative newspaper, is now a journalistic institution and a respect member of Denver’s media landscape,” said Gil Asakawa. “Patty Calhoun, one of the founders, is the editorial vision behind Westword, and has trained dozens of journalists — like me — on the job.”

Colorado Mesa University assistant professor Eric Sandstrom received the SPJ Journalism Educator of the Year Award.

Sandstrom was cited for his contributions to the school’s journalism program as faculty adviser to the campus newspaper and for his work in the classroom. He also was instrumental in establishing a student SPJ chapter in 2012 at the Grand Junction university. Prior to joining CMU in 2007, Sandstrom worked at newspapers in Ohio, Illinois and Nebraska and taught at Kent State University and Cleveland State University.

 

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Colorado Pro’s Busy March

Welcome to March everyone.

The Colorado Pro chapter has a lot going on, so read on for some great upcoming programs and a recap of our panel discussions at the recent Colorado Press Association convention.

Region 9 Conference hits Salt Lake City March 28/29.

Our Region 9 Conference will be held Friday and Saturday, March 28^th and 29^th in sunny Salt Lake City.  There’s an outline of the conference schedule and a paypal link for people to register on the Utah Headliners’ website, utahspj.com.   The cost is $25 for SPJ members (and students) and $35 for non-members.

The state of scholastic journalism.

Challenges facing scholastic journalism will be discussed at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 12, at the Denver Press Club, 1330 Glenarm Place. The event is free and open to the public.

The value of journalism in schools (21st century learning and skills) will be discussed by the panel as well as student publication editorial control, finances, staff recruitment and retention, and relations with college journalism programs and working journalists.

Sponsored by the Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the program will feature four current and former high journalism teachers and advisers:

– Mark Newton, journalism teacher and media adviser at Mountain Vista High School in Highlands Ranch, is president of the Journalism Education Association.

– Jack Kennedy, executive director of the Colorado High School Press Association and JEA past president, is the former newspaper adviser at Rock Canyon High School in Highlands Ranch. He is an adjunct professor at Metro State University of Denver and Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

– Carrie Faust, Smoky Hill High School in Aurora, is the JEA Southwest Region director.

– Kristi Rathbun, Rock Canyon High School, is JEA’s state director.

Anastasiya Bolton leads Fireside Chat

9News reporter Anastasiya Bolton will be featured in a Fireside Chat at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 20, at the Denver Press Club, 1300 Glenarm Place.

The event is free and open to the public.

Bolton, who covers crime and justice at 9News, will discuss her coverage of the Sochi Olympics at the Fireside Chat. She went to Russia in June 2013 to do pre-Olympics stories and then spent February in Sochi during the games.

A native of Moscow, Bolton came to the United States to attend college. After graduating from Southern Methodist University, she worked at TV stations in Dallas, Amarillo and Tyler, Texas, and Birmingham, Ala., before joining 9News.

The Sochi Olympics weren’t Bolton’s first return to Russia on a news assignment. While working at the Tyler station she traveled to Siberia to do stories on the plight of Russian orphans.

Bolton and photojournalist Andy Buck received a national Edward R. Murrow award in 2013 for a series on a Fort Collins woman who survived a killer. In 2007, she won a regional Emmy in Spot News for her coverage of the Safeway warehouse shooting.

Sunshine Week approaches

The Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition will present a one-hour webinar on Sunshine Week at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 4.

Sunshine Week, the annual celebration of your right to know what and why and how decisions are made by your local, state and national government, is March 16-22. The CFOIC is also sponsoring a panel discussion on “Who’s Records Are They Anyway? How to Get Your Hands on Public Records” on March 19.

The 12-year-old event is officially described as a national initiative to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. At the grassroots level, it is yearly reminder that every resident of every community has a right to know how the town board, city council, school board, county commissioners and every other elected and appointed board operates.

At the practical level, it also serves as a reminder to public officials that they are to be held accountable for their decisions and actions.

While a variety of organizations – nonprofits, libraries, schools and civic groups – participate in Sunshine Week activities, the news media are often at the forefront of open government and freedom of information projects each March and throughout the year. FOI resources and project ideas can be found on the sunshineweek.org website.

The site features a Sunshine Week Toolkit and Idea Bank.

Last fall, the Colorado Pro Chapter partnered with CFOIC to present open government programs to college students and professors at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, CU-Boulder and on the Auraria campus in Denver.

SPJ and CFOIC also conducted an open government panel session on Feb. 21 at the Colorado Press Association annual convention in Denver.

SPJ at CPA

Colorado Pro Chapter conducted two sessions at this year’s Colorado Press Association annual convention at the Westin Denver Downtown Hotel, Feb. 20.

Panelists Jim Anderson, left, Steve Zansberg and Jeff Roberts at the Feb. 21 FOI session during the CPA convention. CREDIT: Thomas Cooper of Lightbox Images

The first was a freedom of information/open government discussion featuring panelists Jeff Roberts, executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition; CFOIC president and First Amendment attorney Steve Zansberg; Cara DeGette, editor of Colorado Public News and immediate past president of  Colorado Pro and Jim Anderson, The Associated Press news editor for Colorado, Montana and Wyoming, and ethics chair of the SPJ Colorado Pro Chapter.

The second SPJ session focused on diversity in newsrooms and in news coverage. The panelists were Denver Post director of news operations Linda Shapley; Tim Ryan, assistant news director at 9News; and Gil Asakawa, manager of student media at CU-Boulder, president of the Denver chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association, and diversity chair of the SPJ Colorado Pro Chapter.

SPJ Colo Pro meets with Russian journalists

Anyone who would like to join us, you’d be more than welcome and we’re quite sure the delegation of international journalists would welcome many points of view. This will be in a mixer format, so come visit and enjoy the Denver Press Club, 1330 Glenarm.

The delegation of International Journalists visits Wednesday, November 20^th from 6:30-8:00pm. They are a very engaged group and will appreciate warm hospitality and professional insights. This program is sponsored by the U.S. Congress Open World Leadership Program and is administered in part by WorldDenver. The five participants have been selected as emerging leaders throughout Russia for their work as journalists, advancing the public’s access to information.

Meeting Topic: The delegation is looking forward to meeting with the Society of Professional Journalists to talk about various journalism issues and to meet with well-known journalists from across the state of Colorado.

Participants:

Ms. Darya DANILOVA, News Correspondent, Russian Public Television

Dr. Denis DOKUCHAYEV, Director of Media & Information Projects, Seryeznyye Proyekty, LLC

Ms. Alina LVOVA, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Channel 31 News Company

Mr. Pavel POMINOV, Chief Business Development Officer, Omskpress, LLC

Ms. Yuliya SHEVTSOVA, Chief Executive Officer, Vyatsky Nablyudatel Newspaper

Mr. Ilya MICHCHENKO (Facilitator), Deputy Director of Translation and Localisation Centre, “EGO Translation Company”

Escorts: The delegation will be accompanied by Ms. Michelle Woodruff and Mr. Nathan Gallo, representatives of WorldDenver.

 

New Board Set, NewsTrain on track and SPJ’s EIJ 2013

Hope everyone’s summer has gone swimmingly. Hard to believe it’s already drawing to a close. Your Colorado Pro board is set, with the July elections behind us (thanks to all who voted). We’d like to welcome new board members: Tak Landrock, a multiple award-winning investigative reporter at KDVR FOX 31 with a 20-year Colorado career in television journalism; and Kara Mason, a student at Colorado State University-Pueblo working a dual degree in journalism and political science, magazine editor at CSU-Pueblo Today and news editor for the Pulp, an alternative news magazine in Pueblo. Tak and Kara bring some fresh ideas and enthusiasm to the board and we’re excited to have them.

CPA’s NewsTrain headed to Colorado Springs
Colorado Pro is happy to help the Colorado Press Association spread the word about NewsTrain. It’s a two-day journalism workshop that will be in Colorado Springs Sept. 27-28. NewsTrain is sponsored by APME and the workshop is hosted by the Colorado Press Association and the Colorado Springs Gazette. We’re so excited about it, we’re going to pay the registration fees for two Colorado SPJ members to attend. If you’re interested, email us at news@spjcolorado.com. For more information about NewsTrain visit CPA’s website.

SPJ’s EIJ 2013
We’re pumped about SPJ’s national convention Excellence in Journalism in Anaheim this weekend. Colorado Pro President Dennis Huspeni is representing the chapter and we gave Colorado freelance writer and SPJ member Jayme Moye a $500 stipend to offset most registration and travel costs for her to attend. They’ll both be tweeting (@denmanh, @jaymemoye and @spjcolo) and posting updates on our FaceBook page. Moye’s stipend, along with the NewsTrain registration stipends, shows the chapter’s commitment to getting our members help with professional training. If you have any tips on available training, let us know!

Ethics Panel Dec. 7 @ Denver Post

Colorado Pro Chapter Presents:

Ethics in the Digital Age

Join the Colorado SPJ Pro Chapter for this free program as media professionals discuss the challenges, and the temptations, of high-tech delivery systems for news. Moderated by Doug Bell, editor of four weekly Evergreen Newspapers.

Time: 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Date: Wednesday, Dec. 7

Place: The Denver Post Auditorium, 101 W. Colfax Ave., Denver

Panelists:

Raj Chohan: A former reporter for News4, Chohan has become an attorney and now hosts “Colorado Inside Out” on Channel 12.

Deb Hurley Brobst: After 25 years as head of the Metro State journalism program, she is now an editor at Evergreen Newspapers.

Fred Brown: A respected expert on journalism ethics, longtime Denver Post reporter, and the former national president  of SPJ, Brown will offer a larger perspective.

Jim Anderson: Anderson, the news editor for the Associated Press in Denver, will discuss ethical challenges related to war images and international coverage.