The Philadelphia Press Association’s 70th Banquet was yesterday evening, June 14 at Anthony’s restaurant in Haddon Heights, N.J.
The food and company were superb.
The winners in the prestigious public service categories were Kristina Scala of the Daily Local News who now writes for the Delaware County Daily Times for her expose on the Coastesville Area School District and Donald Serfass of the Times News of Lehighton for an interesting piece of a Tamaqua connection to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln; the staff of the weekly Delco News Network; and Larry Kane of KYW Newsradio for his Breakfast with Candidates.
Anjalee Khemiani, who lives in the Washington D.C. area but won the Enterprise Reporting Category for her story for the Press of Atlantic City about the effect the casino closings had on immigrants, may have traveled the farthest to attend the event. Ms. Khemiani also won an honorable mention for Newspaper Writing Daily.
A note of sadness was that several awards were won by staffers at the Jewish Exponent including first places for Amishai Gottlieb for Jewish Basketball League in Sports Coverage Weekly and Lisa Hostein for Viewing Fathers Day in Column Writing Weekly. The staff was laid off soon after the awards were announced. We understand that the Press Association has their plaques and certificates. Contact pdsradio@aol.com for information.
Janice Selinger, former executive director of New Jersey Network, won, along with her staff, first place for Television Feature as an independent for her production of the documentary Life After Sandy (Part 2).
Rowan Radio’s Derek Jones, Mike Kazin, Bill Gorden and Lisa Conley joined KYW as radio winners.
Mike Shute’s pioneering website South Jersey Sports Digest was the big winner in the website category.
Philadelphia Daily News columnist Stu Bykofsky, who won the Column Writing Daily category, was missed as he was off sailing the Greek isles.
The excellent South Philly Review also won multiple awards. A complete list of winners can be found at PhillyPPA.com.
Kudos to William Lawrence Sr, formerly of the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philadelphia Evening Bulletin and who was among the founders of the Press Newspapers of Delaware County, for his small speech regarding newspaper reporting in the 1950s. He described how the Press Association was salvaged from oblivion at that time.
Philadelphia Press Association 70th Banquet