Chronicle named Texas Newspaper of the Year

The Santa Fe school shooting. The Santa Fe school shooting. Photo: Staff Photo: Staff Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close Chronicle named Texas Newspaper of the Year 1 / 12 Back to Gallery

The Houston Chronicle earned the prestigious Newspaper of the Year award on Sunday at the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors conference in Austin.

The Chronicle’s investigation of the troubled transplant program at St. Luke’s Medical Center and coverage in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Santa Fe High School were included in the three-day period used for judging the contest.

“I am very proud of the folks in our newsroom receiving this honor, particularly during a period of time when their journalism is more important than ever in serving the best interests of our community,” said John McKeon, publisher of the Chronicle, which is owned by Hearst.

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The Chronicle won a slew of other TAPME awards for its reporting, writing, photography and design efforts in 2018.

The Houston Chronicle took first place in team effort for coverage of the Santa Fe school schooting. Mike Hixenbaugh and Charles Ornstein won third place in the Freedom of Information award for their Heart Failure series.

“This is a terrific tribute to a very talented and hard-working newsroom,” said Interim Executive Editor Steve Riley. “We are striving every day to serve Houston-area readers, and we’re thrilled that the judges recognized that we’re doing it well.”

The Houston Chronicle Staff won Star Online Package of the Year for coverage of the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Harvey. The package was produced by Rachael Gleason, Jordan Rubio and Jasmine Goldband.

Other first-place awards included: Tom Fox for Star Designer of the Year; Maggie Gordon and Monica Rhor for deadline writing and Brian T. Smith for sports column writing.

Lisa Falkenberg won first place for general column writing. Wei-Huan Chen won first place for criticism. Susan Carroll, Emily Foxhall and David Hunn won for first place for feature writing. Alison Cook won third place in the comment and criticism category.

Mark Collette won first place for business reporting. Keri Blakinger won first place for specialty reporting and second place for Star Reporter of the Year.

Ken Ellis, Charles Apple, Dug Begley and St. John Barned-Smith won first place for a series of infographics detailing the dangers of driving in Houston.

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The Chronicle was founded in 1901 by Marcellus E. Foster, who finalized the sale in 1926 of his full interest in the paper to Jesse H. Jones. In 1937, Jones transferred ownership of the paper to Houston Endowment Inc., a nonprofit that retained ownership until Hearst purchased the company in 1987.

The paper won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2015 for columns written by Lisa Falkenberg, who now leads the newspaper’s editorial board. The newspaper has been a Pulitzer finalist seven times, including for its breaking news coverage in 2018 for Hurricane Harvey, in 2017 for its Denied investigation and in 2009 for Hurricane Ike.

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