February Best of the Month Nominations

Congratulations to Rick Green, who was selected Februarys Best Overall in the
News and Information Center. Rick was nominated for his reporting from the state
Capitol Bureau. In February, he launched the new legislative session with a frontpage centerpiece:
Legislative session to begin (with secondary head Bills cover topics including
budget, texting, Indian Museum) and a follow-up centerpiece on the governors
State of the State address: Fallins speech marks start of legislative session (The
goals are straightforward, and the stakes are high). In addition, Rick wrote 12
Page 1 stories in February, including seven plays. Among his play stories were:
Lawmakers consider bills to expand school choice; Budget gap may double;
and Lawmakers to rework bill targeting AP classes (Author says he supports
program). Rick also helped with some editing duties on the Local Desk following
Nick Trougakos departure.

Best Beat or Breaking News Story

From: Robby Trammell
Nominee: Rick Green
Play Budget gap may double (2-13-15)
http://archive.newsok.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?
From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=Oklahoman&BaseHref=DOK/2015/02/1
3&PageLabelPrint=1A&EntityId=Ar00109&ViewMode=GIF

Best Business Story or Business Feature

From: Don Mecoy
Nominee: Adam Wilmoth
Adam was ahead of his peers nationally in producing a story about the flood of oil
into Cushing. As crude prices have fallen, many producers are banking their oil, and
millions of barrels are in the tanks and pipelines of Cushing. Adam explained why
it's happening, and why it could lead to even lower oil prices in the weeks and
months to come. Within a week, I had seen similar stories from AP, Bloomberg and
Reuters. But our readers knew about it first.
http://newsok.com/crude-oil-pouring-into-cushing-oklahoma/article/5394908

Best Sports Story

From: Mike Sherman

Nominee: Jacob Unruh
Tyritta Dixon was profiled in a Sports Illustrated series on homeless athletes. Jacob's
story goes deeper and tells the tale of what happened after the SI piece, and how
her life has changed for the better. Jacob emphasized the coach who stepped into
the gap left by parents who were negligent and/or unaware.
http://newsok.com/article/5396514

Best Feature Story

From: Matt Price
Nominee: Heather Warlick
Great lead and compelling story from Heather about a team of horse rescuers in
Jones, OK. Natalee and Shawn Cross, a married couple of 18 years, have for the past
14 years operated Blazes Tribute Equine Rescue in Jones. They bring some of the
most neglected and abused horses in the state back to health.
This story was shared 1,943 times on Facebook.
http://newsok.com/oklahoma-couple-rescue-thousands-of-neglected-horses-inneed/article/5395315

Best specialty Feature

From: Mike Sherman
Nominee: Berry Trammel
Berry's annual "People who will impact the Super Bowl" is a quick, easy and
engaging read for NFL majors and minors. This year it was 49 people for Super Bowl
49. There's a lot of research, good thought and writing that goes into this every
year. It's a model of how we can offer readers guides to local events and big events
of local interest. Please consider it for BOM in this category.

Best Project/Enterprise/In-Depth Story

From: Matt Price
Nominee(s): Carla Hinton/Sarah Phipps
The Salvation Armys new Night Watch Team takes to the streets in cold weather
months to offer food, warm gear and shelter to homeless people living on the
streets of downtown Oklahoma City. Carla nd Sarah did excellent work telling this
important story through words, photo and video. I thought Carla's piece was
exceptionally well-written and captured the moment cogently.
Reader comment: Carla Conway, Fox Valley Technical College -- God bless the
Salvation Army and these workers! Becky Holmes -- Awesome!!!
http://newsok.com/article/5392696

Best Watchdog Story

From: Robby Trammell
Nominee: Nolan Clay
Play DHS failed to investigate call about grandmother who dressed as witch;
Woman is accused of girls physical, psychological abuse (2-22-15)

http://archive.newsok.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?
From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=Oklahoman&BaseHref=DOK/2015/02/22&PageL
abelPrint=1A&EntityId=Ar00100&ViewMode=GIF

Best Column/Opinion/First-Person Story

From: Don Mecoy
Nominee: Paul Monies
Paul is upset with Hershey for its strong-armed tactics that are making it nearly
impossible for him to obtain the beloved Cadbury chocolate of his childhood and
homeland. Paul's article was forceful and wistful, as he expressed his ire at
Hershey's denial of the importation of CurlyWurly, Crunchie, Double Decker and
Fruit Gums. Paul also supplied photos of the Cadbury products, and of his trash can
filled with rejected Hershey sweets. Everything a personal column should be.
http://newsok.com/article/5390446

Best Blog/Social Media Effort

From: Robb Hibbard
Nominee: Richard Hall
Richard wrote a series of blogs for Black History Month that did very well in a
number of ways: connected with the community, gave a voice to those who might
feel voiceless, educated readers, highlighted important parts of Oklahoma's history
and helped raise NewsOK's page views for the month. http://newsok.com/5-thingsabout-oklahomas-civil-rights-movement-you-should-know/article/5390198
http://newsok.com/6-notable-black-oklahomans-you-should-knowabout/article/5392318
http://newsok.com/5-reasons-the-tulsa-race-riot-should-always-beremembered/article/5394763
http://newsok.com/5-little-known-facts-about-oklahomas-blackhistory/article/5396740

Best Photo
From: Doug Hoke
Nominee: Nate Billings
Dennis Speck makes a phone call while he waits for firefighters to arrive as his car
burns in the background on Interstate 235 south near 36th St. during rush hour
after a winter storm in Oklahoma City, Monday, Feb. 23, 2015.
Speck said he stopped on the highway when his clutch failed and got out of the car
when he saw smoke coming from the hood of his car. Spot news is all about being in
the right spot at the right time, and Nate was. While cruising looking for snow art he
happened upon a car on fire with the owner calling 9-1-1.

Best Design/Illustration
From: Matt Price
Nominee: Ebony Dallas
Ebony crafted a fine-looking LOOK@OKC issue around a Steve Lackmeyer story on
Coney Island Hot Dogs. From Nathan Poppe: Id nominate Ebony Dallas for her
design work on LOOKatOKC in Feb. On the most recent cover, she went as far as
going to Coney Island, borrowing art from the walls, scanning it and improving the
design of the story.
http://issuu.com/opubco/docs/2-25_look-lores/1?e=0

Best Video
From: Mike Sherman

Nominee: Bryan Terry

Bryan Terry's video on Tyritta Dixon, the Northwest Classen senior who went from
homeless to hope, is a great example of what a talented multimedia journalist can
do with time and a good story. In print we can take you there with good writing and
reporting. With Bryan's photos and videos, readers actually met Tyritta and felt her
pain and hope. A strong, collaborative effort between Bryan and Jacob, photo and
sports.
http://newsok.com/high-school-basketball-tyritta-dixon-has-nothing-to-hideanymore/article/5396514

Best Headline(s)
From: Pat Gilliland
Nominee: Pat Gilliland
'Camelot' production is royal disappointment

Special Effort to Improve Accuracy

Tom Maupin, for the following catches, especially No. 3:
No. 1 -- History mistake in year. Slotting a cutline for Feb. 6, Tom saw: Wendell
Gray holds the certificate of homestead issued to his grandmother, Maggie
(Gossin) Gray, and dated May 20, 1862. It was signed by President William
McKinley. Tom knew that Lincoln was president in 1862, not McKinley. A closer look
at the document photo showed the date was May 1897, which was correct for
McKinley.
No. 2 -- Bad headlines caught
Slotting Feb. 19 copy, Tom saw this headline: Edmond School Board changes
boundaries. That was wrong because the school board had received the proposed
changes and had scheduled a meeting so parents could learn about the proposal.
Tom changed the headline to: Edmond district plans meeting on boundaries.
Another bad headline caught. Slotting the first read of a Feb. 19 story about Ash
Wednesday, Tom saw this headline: Christians mark Ash Wednesday in
Oklahoma City. That headline would have been embarrassing because the first
church mentioned was St. Joseph Catholic Church in Norman. Tom changed the
headline to: Christians mark Ash Wednesday in Oklahoma City area. When
the page was designed, Tom and the layout person made this the headline:
Oklahoma Christians mark Ash Wednesday.
No. 3 -- Wrong title in headline. Slotting a business brief for Feb. 20, Tom saw
this headline: Devon CFO to give keynote. But the story said the man is Devons
chief operating officer, not chief financial officer. Tom changed the headline.
No. 4 -- Count was wrong. A Feb. 26 business story said the Oklahoma-made
KiZE energy bars come in four flavors Cocoa, Peanut Butter, Vanilla
Almond and Pumpkin Seed. Tom was slot and saw the photo showed five flavors.
Tom changed the storys flavor count to five and added Cinnamon Raisin to the list.
The business editor was called and OKd the change.