Journal Snags a Dozen Awards 

We at the Journal find ourselves with some thanks to pass around. We're gratified on a weekly basis when you pick up our new edition, finding that it adds some value to your lives, and when you come to our website, looking to learn of Humboldt County's latest triumphs and tragedies. We appreciate when you approach us, looking to contribute your stories, photographs, views or letters, looking to be a part of what we do — even when you've got a bone or 10 to pick. And perhaps most of all, we're grateful when you repeatedly entrust us with telling your stories, sending us tips, confiding in us, opening up and sometimes just being willing to answer the phone when we call.

With all that in mind, we were tremendously pleased this week to learn that our colleagues within the California Newspaper Publishers Association had given us a dozen California Journalism Awards. While individually and collectively, we do this for our readers and our community, it's honestly always nice to get a little recognition, a bit of assurance that we are treating our readers and their stories with the care they deserve.

We also want to stress that while these are editorial and graphic design awards, they really represent the hard work of everyone here at the Journal, from the advertising sales reps and administrative staff who keep the ship afloat to the good folks who get the weekly paper on newsstands. This is a group effort every day, and we are humbled and honored to be a part of it.

With that in mind, here's a look at the awards:

First Place Arts and Entertainment Coverage to Journal Arts and Features Editor Jennifer Fumiko Cahill, Calendar Editor Kali Cozyris, a small army of freelancers and the Journal's production staff. This is the fourth time the Journal has taken home top honors for arts and entertainment coverage in the last five years.

First Place Profile Story for Thadeus Greenson's "A Giant Falls Among the Redwoods," a profile of the late John Hudson, a Purple Heart war veteran, caregiver, advocate, community organizer and Sister of Perpetual Indulgence.

First Place Special Section for the June 7 Media Literacy Issue, which featured a variety of news and opinion pieces aimed at helping readers better understand how the Journal — and media in general — operates. 

First Place for Special Publication for the summer/fall edition of Humboldt Insider. One judge's take: "Publication is very well done and serving the area with quality writing, useful information and great graphic design and promotions."

Second Place for Coverage of Local Government for assistant editor Kimberly Wear's coverage of Arcata's decision to remove the statue of President William McKinley from the center of the plaza. "Wear brings great voice to this series of stories about the controversy," one judge wrote.

Second Place for Inside Page Layout and Design for Jonathan Webster's layout of "In the Wind," the Journal's Feb. 22 cover story about the prospects of an offshore wind energy farm off the North Coast. 

Second Place for Illustration for Jacqueline Langeland's cover illustration for "Plight of the Abalone," the Journal's March 8, 2018, cover story. 

Third Place for General Excellence, which judges the entirety of the paper's content, front to back, in two consecutive issues on Feb. 1, 2018, and Feb. 8, 2018. "This paper is an adventure," one judge wrote. "It's totally engaging and covers the serious to the frivolous ... and is friggin' beautiful, too."

Third Place for Special Section Cover Layout and Design for our March 15, 2018, "The Cannabis Issue," and Nov. 22, 2018, "Gift Guide," cover illustrations by Jonathan Webster and our Sept. 13, "Burger Week 2018," cover illustration by Jacqueline Langeland.

Third Place for Special Publication for the Spring 2018 Humboldt Cannabis Magazine.

Fifth Place for Feature Story for Kimberly Wear's March 8, 2018, story "Plight of the Abalone." One judge described it as, "A gripping tale of an environmental disaster while we are still in the middle of it." 

Fifth Place for Front Page Layout and Design for our Feb. 22, 2018, cover illustration for "In the Wind" by Jonathan Webster, our Aug. 23, 2018, cover for "Art in the Streets," designed by Webster with a photo from freelancer Alexander Woodard, and our Oct. 25, 2018, cover for "Catch me if You Can," illustrated by Dave Orchard and designed by Webster.