WASHINGTON—Knight Ridder journalists won three first-place awards in the 71st annual National Headliner Awards, one of the oldest and largest journalism contests.
Jonathan S. Landay, Warren P. Strobel and John Walcott of the Knight Ridder Washington Bureau won the first-place award in the news series, circulation over 75,000, category for their series of articles on "How the Bush Administration Went to War in Iraq." Their stories on the intelligence behind the Iraq war can be found on the Web at www.krwashington.com.
David Yarnold and Daniel Vasquez of the San Jose Mercury News won the editorial writing category for their work "Money and Influence."
Myung Oak Kim of The Philadelphia Daily News captured the public service award for "School Zones of Danger."
Other Knight Ridder journalists honored were Joe Mozingo of The Miami Herald, who received second place for news beat coverage. The Miami Herald staff also received second place for spot news. Mary C. Curtis of The Charlotte Observer won second place for special or feature column on one subject. Tamara Audi, Jamie Butters and Jeffrey McCracken of the Detroit Free Press received second place for business news coverage. Manny Garcia and Jason Grotto of The Miami Herald received third place in the investigative reporting category, and Chip Bok of the Akron Beacon Journal won third place for editorial cartoons.
In photography and graphics, Peter Andrew Bosch of The Miami Herald and David Swanson of The Philadelphia Inquirer took second and third place, respectively, for spot news. Swanson also received a second place award for his photography portfolio. Wm. Pitzer of The Charlotte Observer received a third place award for informational graphics. The editorial artists at the Akron Beacon Journal won second place for illustrative graphics. Doug Griswold of the San Jose Mercury News received third place in that same category.
The four Grand Award winners were:
_ Paul Salopek of the Chicago Tribune for feature writing on a variety of subjects.
_Jad Abumrad, Aaron Cohen and Elena Park of WNYC in New York for their feature story "The Ring and I: The Passion, The Myth, The Mania."
_Khalid Mohammed of The Associated Press for spot news photography on "American Deaths."
_ Anne Ryder, Steve Starnes and Jason Richards of WTHR-TV in Indianapolis for their documentary or series of reports on "To Hell and Back."
The National Headliner Awards were founded in 1934 by the Press Club of Atlantic City. They honor work in newspapers, magazines, radio and television.
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