Blade wins 20 awards in Cleveland Press Club contest

The Blade and its staff received 20 awards in 17 categories in the 2016 All Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards, presented by the Press Club of Cleveland.

Among the honors was a third-place award for The Blade for best daily newspaper in Ohio with a circulation over 75,000.

Jeff Basting won first place in the broadsheet category for his single-page design of “Venomous snakes of Ohio.” Hasan Dudar and Katie Rausch posted a first-place finish with “The Last of Little Syria” in the Online Storytelling category. In the Visuals Single Cartoon category, Kirk Walters won first place for his “Drink Lake Erie Lite/More Algae — Less Toxic” cartoon.

Three staffers placed in the Best in Ohio category: Jeff Gerritt in second and Dave Kushma in third for editorial, and Walters in third for cartooning.

The Blade won second place in Breaking News: Consecutive Days-Same Topic for its coverage of former Mayor D. Michael Collins’ death.Tom Troy, Ignazio Messina, and Lauren Lindstrom won second place in Breaking News: Single-Day Package for their story “Mayor suffers cardiac arrest, crashes SUV” about the same topic.

Other second-place finishes for The Blade were: Keith Burris in the Public Service category for “What Works: How midsized cities succeed,” Gerritt in the General News Column category for “Uncommon ground,” Matt Markey in the Sports Column category for “Lion’s killing is a lot of things, but it’s not hunting,” Kirk Baird in the Lifestyle category for “Toledo is the new Peoria,” Basting for “Frogtown regatta” in the Illustration Single Image category, Kushma in the Single Editorial category for “Mr. Kasich’s leadership,” and Blade staff in the Use of Social Media category for “Blade Internet mayoral debates.”

The Blade also received several third-place awards: Jeremy Wadsworth in the Daily Newspaper Photography-Spot News category for “Officers remove police K-9 shot and killed in a Toledo standoff,”Tom Fisher for “Season of the Arts” n the Illustration Single Image category, Kushma in the General News Column category for “Another Toledo water crisis? It’s possible, if we lose focus on Lake Erie,”and Gerritt in the Single Essay category for “Who is really white in America, anymore?”