Style Weekly was honored last weekend by the Virginia Press Association’s annual contest with 25 awards: 13 first place, four second place and seven third place finishes, in addition to one of the night’s major awards for journalistic integrity and community service.

In editorial, five of the first place finishes went to photographer Scott Elmquist, including his coverage of protests here and in Charlottesville, as well as a powerful slideshow of two teenagers remembered at Mosby Court. Also, Jackie Kruszewski won a first place for arts writing for her story “Richmond Noir” about local author Howard Owen, and a first place for general news writing. Creative Director Ed Harrington won a first place for informational graphics. The advertising team, led by Creative Advertising Director Joel Smith, won five first place awards and one third place.

Also we were presented this year’s award for journalistic integrity and community service for our staff’s work covering a wide range of protests and news events.

Here are some of the judges’ comments:

“They more than met the challenge they set for themselves, producing meaningful coverage of their community’s response to a historic election over a seven-month period, before turning their focus in August 2017 to the horrific events in Charlottesville.

“The SPJ Code of Ethics calls for journalists to ‘give voice to the voiceless’ and in their coverage of these events Style Weekly does just that. I was struck by the excellent balance of photo and voice – seeing the people and hearing them as well made for powerful storytelling. … I found myself being pulled into the story, into the lives of these people who had taken time from their own lives to make a statement, to get involved, to be seen, to be heard. … The excellent reporting of the Style Weekly staff – in reporting, photographing, editing and laying out stories with a pleasing consistency and continuity of style — made that possible. Excellent team effort — well done.”