Several Los Gatan contributors were honored by the California News Publishers Association at the 2023 California Journalism Awards gala in Los Angeles Saturday for work in sister publications.
Todd Guild, a Weeklys editor, won first place in the Coverage of Youth and Education category for an article about court-ordered therapy published in Good Times Santa Cruz.
It also resulted in a first-place win for Good Times in the Public Service Journalism category.
Guild won first (for the Pajaronian) in Print Front Page Layout & Design as part of a team that included Tarmo Hannula and Johanna Miller, as well as former Los Gatan editor Erik Chalhoub and former Los Gatan designer Hon Truong.
Hannula, Guild and Chalhoub achieved third place (for The Pajaronian) in the Breaking News category for coverage of Pajaro River flooding.
The Los Gatan was a finalist in the Print Inside Page Layout & Design category for an editorial package, by Truong, about 2023 the Los Gatos High School graduation.
It is the first time since the paper was founded in 2021 it’s received this distinction.
Drew Penner, the now-Los Gatan editor, Dan Pulcrano, the paper’s founder and executive editor, Michael Moore, the editor of the Morgan Hill Times, and Nikki Silverstein, who reports for the Pacific Sun in Marin County, placed second in the In-Depth Reporting category for a Metro Silicon Valley article about the fentanyl crisis, which touched on Los Gatos incidents.
The piece also placed third for Feature Story.
Richard Stockton’s article “Case of the Unfortunate Haircut,” also published in Metro Silicon Valley, took first in the category.
Members of the Los Gatan production and design team Haley Tweedell and Cindy Couling—alongside Heather Tsang, Pulcrano and Frans Lanting—earned second in Print Special Section Cover for “fun visuals and typeface” for a Good Times layout.
Mat Weir and Pulcrano came in second in the Writing category for a Metro Silicon Valley article.
It was the first time the gala has been held since 2019.
This year, the gathering of print gumshoes—and beyond—was held at the Sheraton Universal Hotel. It featured intimate and riveting professional development sessions such as “Investigative Reporting: Taking Big Swings and Getting Buy-In,” “AI in the Newsroom,” “Collaboration for Impact in Small Newsrooms,” and “Philanthropy and Journalism.”
The program encouraged attendees to support Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal who’s been detained in Russia since March 2023 on accusations of espionage, including by posting on social media with the hashtag #IStandWithEvan.
