Star Tribune wins eight National Headliner Awards

The Star Tribune has won eight awards in the 83rd annual National Headliner Awards, including two first-place honors. The stories, projects, photos and digital content covered a wide variety of topics.

Taking first-place honors were:

• For web or interactive project: "A Cry for Help," by Star Tribune staff. The judges said it "used powerful storytelling and design to rise above a strong and large field to explain an important element of citizen confrontations with police. The series did a balanced job of showing different perspectives on these horrific incidents that are applicable in Minnesota and nationwide."

• For best news feature, single photo: "Snow Graves" by David Joles. Judges said, "Snow-covered headstones of fallen soldiers in a Minnesota cemetery add power to this quiet, monochromatic photo of a lone visitor to the site."

Other winners included:

• Third place in spot news for daily newspapers of all sizes: "The Shooting Death of Philando Castile," by Star Tribune staff.

• Honorable mention for news series in daily newspapers with daily circulation over 100,000: "Solitary: Way down in the hole," by Andy Mannix.

• Second Place in special or feature column: Jon Bream.

• Third place in environmental writing by an individual or team: Josephine Marcotty.

• Third place in social media strategy: Colleen Kelly, Rachel Chazin and Aaron Lavinsky.

The National Headliner Awards program was founded in 1935 by the Press Club of Atlantic City, N.J. It is one of the oldest and largest annual contests recognizing journalistic merit in the communications industry. More than 2,000 Headliner medallions have been presented to outstanding writers, photographers, daily newspapers, magazines, graphic artists, radio and television stations and networks, and news syndicates.

In telling the staff about the awards, editor Rene Sanchez and managing editor Suki Dardarian said, "That's by far the most Headliner Awards we've ever received in one year, and it reflects the hard, creative work by individuals and teams throughout the newsroom. Congratulations to everyone involved in helping produce this great journalism."