Henry, McCray, Basting win June Eddy Awards

The winners of last month’s Eddy Awards have been selected, and a common theme among these winners is they all were performing a different role than is normally asked of them and they did so with excellence.

The News Eddy goes to Tom Henry for his handling of the gorilla issue at the Cincinnati Zoo. While editing on Memorial Day, Tom was able to track down Jeff Sailer from the Toledo Zoo to speak about the gorilla’s death. He went the following week to cover the gorilla exhibit reopening in Cincinnati. And he came in on a Saturday, when no one else was available, and wrote a local feature with reaction to the death of boxing great Muhammad Ali.

Vanessa McCray takes home the June Desk Eddy. She was serving as the Night City Editor for a week, and helping assist the interns, but was still able to produce two breaking news stories – about police shooting a man holding an AR-15 rifle in his yard in Williams County, and UT hiring a new financial administrator. Plus, she wrote a weekend enterprise piece about the UT budget.

The Visual Eddy was awarded to Jeff Basting for tackling 17 graphics to be used by Ohio media outlets to support the Ohio Media Project on the presidential campaign, and what is driving folks to support any given candidate.

Each winner receives a $50 gas card.

Nominations for July Eddys can be submitted at any time during the month but must be to Luann no later than noon on Aug. 1.