The Anna Maria Island Sun was recognized with nine awards in the 2018 Florida Press Club Excellence in Journalism Competition at a ceremony in Mt. Dora on Saturday.
The Sun’s online edition, amisun.com, won third place for “News Website” statewide, competing against online newspapers of all sizes.
Staff writer Kristin Swain swept the “Community News Writing” category, winning all three awards in the division. Her first place award is for “Hurricane recovery begins for condo owners,” about delays in the repairs of several Holmes Beach condos damaged by Hurricane Irma. She won second and third place awards for “Protecting Holmes Beach from rising tides,” about a city engineer’s plans to harden the city against flooding, and “Property owners sue neighbors for complaining about noise,” about vacation rental owners suing neighbors who reported noise violations to the city.
Staff writer and Digital Editor Cindy Lane won first place in “Commentary Writing” for “The press goes back to school,” about statewide coverage erroneously reporting that a new Florida law allowed beachfront property owners to keep people off the beach.
She won second place in “Online Package” with Bob Hite, of Kinship Productions, for “Vaught’s Vietnam,” (see video) a story honoring the military service of Sun staff writer Tom Vaught; second place in “That is so… Florida” for “State investigates net camp construction,” about a Cortez resident who built a structure on pilings in state waters; second place in “General News Writing” for “Fishermen ask Floridians to cast vote against net ban,” about commercial fishermen’s efforts to put a constitutional amendment on the state’s ballot reversing the net ban; and third place in “Features Photography” for “Island SUNset.”
