Local reporters win Excellence in Journalism Awards

Three Heritage Newspapers reporters swept the sports columnist category in the Society of Professional Journalists Detroit chapter's 2009 Excellence in Journalism Awards.

At a dinner held April 14 at the San Marino Club in Troy, Jana Miller, Mike Larson and Don Richter won first through third place, respectively, in the sports columnist category in print, Class B, with a circulation less than 100,000.

In addition, reporter Gerald LaVaute won third place for investigative reporting for his piece "Police Compensation Comparison."

LaVaute is a staff writer for The View in Belleville and The Milan News-Leader.

Miller, a former Saline and Milan sports reporter, is a copy editor and reporter for The Manchester Enterprise. Judges noted that all three of her entries were award worthy. They were "Hush, hush controversy brings sex into sports," "Academics and athletics can mix" and "Gender equity in sports."

Richter, a former sports reporter for The Chelsea Standard and The Dexter Leader, now covers sports for The Saline Reporter and The Milan News-Leader. His winning piece was his farewell column to Chelsea and Dexter readers.

Larson, a sports reporter for The Ann Arbor Journal, a new publication launched July 9, 2009, by Heritage Newspapers, won for his column "Medal More than Award." This is the first award produced from the A2 Journal. The other Heritage publications have a long history of winning journalism awards in the SPJ contest, as well as in the Michigan Press Association Better Newspapers Contest and Suburban Newspapers of America editorial contest.

This year's competition was judged by the North Central Florida Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, SPJ Minnesota Pro Chapter and Chicago Headline Club.

More than 100 Excellence in Media awards were given to area journalists during the banquet.

Staff Changes at Heritage Newspapers

Heritage Newspapers-West, which includes newspapers in Saline, Milan, Ann Arbor, Chelsea, Dexter, Manchester, Ypsilanti and Belleville, will see some changes next week as we switch some staff around to better utilize their talents.

Deputy Managing Editor Terry Jacoby has been named sports editor for all eight newspapers and will cover high school sports in Chelsea and Dexter. In turn, Don Richter, who has held the sports editor position for Chelsea and Dexter for the last nine years, will move to Saline and Milan, covering the Hornets and Big Reds. Jana Miller, sports reporter for The Saline Reporter and Milan News-Leader, heads over to Manchester to write news, serve as copy editor and special sections coordinator. Daniel Lai, who has held the copy editor and reporter position at The Manchester Enterprise since spring 2007, will serve as copy editor and reporter for The Chelsea Standard and Dexter Leader.

All press releases and photos submitted to the editor@ e-mail addresses will be forwarded to the new person in charge beginning Dec. 10 as Jana will design and paginate the Manchester paper and Daniel will do the same for the Chelsea and Dexter papers. Each also may be contacted through their personal e-mail addresses through the newspapers, jmiller@heritage.com and dlai@heritage.com. Terry can be reached at tjacoby@heritage.com and Don at drichter@heritage.com.

Terry began implementing some new design and feature components as part of our expanded sports sections in the fall and plans to take that further as he leads the sports department in the new year.

Please join me in congratulating everyone on their new positions and please feel free to e-mail them your thoughts, suggestions, press releases and photographs.