Star Tribune's Dave Hage named Minnesota's SPJ Journalist of the Year

Dave Hage, who oversees coverage of health care, the environment and social issues at the Star Tribune, was named Journalist of the Year Tuesday night at the Society of Professional Journalists' annual Page One Awards banquet in St. Paul.

Hage was among several Star Tribune journalists honored for their work in the past year. The newspaper's "Denied Justice" package, an examination of how the state's criminal justice system often fails sexual assault victims, received the Story of the Year award. Reporters Brandon Stahl, Jennifer Bjorhus and MaryJo Webster and photojournalist Renée Jones Schneider were behind those stories.

"Denied Justice" was also honored for Best Use of Public Records.

Reporter Chris Serres and photographer David Joles were finalists for the Story of the Year award for their coverage of the Minneapolis homeless encampment.

Minnesota Public Radio news photographer Evan Frost was named Young Journalist of the Year.

The full list of awards is at www.mnspj.org. This year's entries were judged by members of the Kansas City Heartland of America Club.

Gov. Tim Walz gave the banquet's keynote speech, stressing the importance of news organizations for shaping the statewide conversation.

Several other Star Tribune journalists were honored. They were:

Lori Sturdevant, a longtime reporter, editor, columnist and author who recently retired from the Star Tribune, received the 2019 Peter S. Popovich Award, given to a person or organization that exemplifies the fight for First Amendment rights. Sturdevant urged her colleagues to "keep knocking on the closed doors," and cited a quote from Elmer L. Andersen — Minnesota's 30th governor and later a newspaper publisher — "You can trust the people to do the right thing — provided they get the facts."

Neal Justin and Jeff Meitrodt won first place in the Best Beat Reporting category for coverage of the sexual harassment allegations against Garrison Keillor. Third place in that category went to Andy Mannix.

Rochelle Olson and Jim Walsh won first place in the Breaking News (50,000+ circulation) category for their coverage of the Jacob Wetterling case. Second place went to Libor Jany, David Chanen, Brandon Stahl and Faiza Mahamud for their coverage of the Mohamed Noor case.

In the Deadline News Coverage (50,000+ circulation) category, first and second places went to the Star Tribune staff for coverage of the 2018 Super Bowl and the 2018 elections, respectively.

In the Single-Story Enterprise/In-Depth (50,000+ circulation) category, Mary Lynn Smith was awarded second place for "Fatal plunge into Lake Minnetonka tests a father and a marriage," and Shannon Prather won third place for "Adoption numbers plummet in Minnesota and nationwide."

In the Series Enterprise/In-Depth (50,000+ circulation) categories, Jackie Crosby won first place for "Aging parents, stressed families," Jean Hopfensperger second for "A Test of Faith: The Un-churching of America," and Shannon Prather third for "Minnesota Historical Society broadens how it tells the state's history."

In the Investigative (50,000+ circulation) category, "Denied Justice" took first place.

In the Business (50,000+ circulation) category, Joe Carlson won first place for "Legal war engulfs 3M device."

In the Sports News Coverage (50,000+ circulation) category, Ben Goessling won first place for coverage of the Vikings, Sarah McLellan second place for coverage of the Wild, and Marcus Fuller third place for coverage of the Gophers.

In the Magazines Graphics/Art and Illustration category, Tim O'Brien and Kim Vu won second place for "Born to run," which also took second place in the Best Issue category.

The Star Tribune's website took third place in the Best Website category, while online presentation of "Meth cuts lethal path through Minnesota," by Stephen Montemayor, Anna Boone and Anthony Soufflé, took second place for the best single news story. The Star Tribune won third place in the Best Continuing Coverage category for coverage of the 2018 Super Bowl. And "Super Bowl: Pudge, the first pro," by Mark Craig, won first place for the Best Single Sports Story online. Second place in that category went to Anna Boone for "From $12 to $2,500 and counting."

In the Best Use of Multimedia category, the Star Tribune took first place for "I was just lost in the dark," while third place went to Dave Braunger and Brian Peterson for "Feeling Superior: Part Five, Nature Effect."

In the Best Social Media Account (Institutional), the Star Tribune Twitter account took second place. "Denied Justice" took first place for Best News Video.

The first-place award for Best Newsroom Blog went to Michael Rand for "Randball."

First place for Best News Photography went to Rich Tsong-Taatarii. First place for Best Feature Photography went to Brian Peterson.

Second place for Best Portrait Photography (50,000+ circulation) went to Renée Jones Schneider for "Denied Justice."