APRILS BEST OF THE MONTH WINNERS

Congratulations to Brianna Bailey, who was selected Best Overall for April. Brianna
conceptualized her #walkonwestern, trudged the 27 miles from Edmond to Moore -photographing, tweeting and interacting with Oklahoma Cityans as she went each
day -- then wrote up a story that helped our citys residents learn more about the
varied places in their own hometown.
Business Editor Don Mecoy said: Brianna hit on many aspects of our mission
statement with imagination, verve, and good old-fashioned shoe leather. Her effort
would not have been as successful if she did not collaborate closely with folks in our
Photo, Video and Social Media departments to help chronicle her progress from one
end of Western to the other. Excellent collaboration!
Winners in other categories:

Best Beat or Breaking News

From: Robby Trammell
Nominee: Rick Green
Play State texting-driving ban is on way to becoming law
http://archive.newsok.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?
From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=Oklahoman&BaseHref=DOK/2015/04/30&PageL
abelPrint=1A&EntityId=Ar00101&ViewMode=GIF

Best Feature Story

From: Robby Trammell
Nominee: Nolan Clay
Page 1 Ex-FBI special agent credits higher power for his part in bombing
case
http://archive.newsok.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?
From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=Oklahoman&BaseHref=DOK/2015/04/13&PageL
abelPrint=1A&EntityId=Ar00102&ViewMode=GIF

Best Specialty Feature

From: Matt Price
Nominee: Carla Hinton
The Prince of Peace Easter pageant held in the Holy City of the Wichitas at the
Wichita Wildlife Refuge in southwest Oklahoma is celebrating its 90th year. Carla
Hinton did a great job capturing the feel of the event for a page 1 Easter story.
http://newsok.com/article/5407434

Best Sports Story

From: Mike Sherman
Nominee: Darnell Mayberry
On the day James Harden was set to play the Thunder in Oklahoma City, with ABC
broadcasting the game, Darnell gave 13 reasons -- 13 for Harden's No. 13 jersey -why OKC's Harden-to-Houston trade will never die. It was as well-reported, analyzed
and presented list and it was the most viewed story on NewsOK for April with
94,000 page views.
http://newsok.com/article/5407507

Best Business Story or Business Feature

From: Don Mecoy
Nominee: Paul Monies
Paul had to quickly turn around a very technical report from the U.S. Geological
Survey that concluded that broadened the scope of what it considers to be induced
earthquakes in Oklahoma. After posting a quick online version, Paul sorted through
a lot of data, contacted numerous sources and produced a clear version for our
readers.
http://newsok.com/article/5413001

Best Project/Enterprise/In-Depth Story

From: Don Mecoy
Nominee: Brianna Bailey
Brianna's #walkonwestern was a smashing success. She conceived the idea, walked
the walk and then talked the talk -- both online and in print. She opened a window
for our readers to their sprawling city that is not often seen, highlighting businesses,
neighborhoods and personalities along the way. She tweeted, generating the
trending #walkonwestern hashtag, provided photo and video, provided content for a
live article and wrote a heck of a story.
http://newsok.com/article/5413826
From: Phillip OConnor
Nominee: Juliana Keeping
Juliana's words, along with Doug Hoke's portraits, told the intimate, heroic and
heartbreaking stories of about dozen Vietnamese refugees who escaped their warravaged country and are now proud to call America and Oklahoma home. The short
vignettes and video interviews helped capture the essence of the immigrant
experience and the human impact of a war that ended 40 years ago.
http://newsok.com/article/5414885

Best Watchdog
From: Robby Trammell
Nominee(s): Andrew Knittle/Jaclyn Cosgrove
Play/Centerpiece Oklahomas Deadliest Month; 61 lives were claimed by
prescription drug overdose deaths in March 2014
http://archive.newsok.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?
From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=Oklahoman&BaseHref=DOK/2015/04/12&PageL
abelPrint=1A&EntityId=Ar00110&ViewMode=GIF

Best Column/Opinion/First-Person
From: Mike Sherman
Nominee: Berry Tramel
Of all the columns Berry Tramel has written for The Oklahoman, none have gotten a
bigger response, or touched more readers than his column written on the day his
mother died at age 82.
http://newsok.com/eighty-one-years-of-health-and-joy-and-when-the-health-wentthe-joy-didnt/article/5408824

Best Blog/Social Media Effort

From: Tom Maupin
Nominee: Tom Maupin
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?
set=a.10153263376264074.1073741833.86672804073&type=3
That is the link to my Camera on the City album in the newspaper's Facebook page.
In early April, Tiffany Gibson created the album for my downtown photos. The
photos show day and nights views of downtown Oklahoma City and areas of the
Myriad Gardens. Twenty-four photos were posted during April. They were posted
April 7, 14 and 28. By 7:30 p.m. April 30, there were 113 likes, 15 shares, and 4
comments for the overall package. Many of the individual photos also had likes and
comments.
Before April, I already had submitted to the paper's Facebook page 23 other photos
from January to March. Those photos included images from our old building and
night shots of our new building.

Best Photo
From: Doug Hoke
Nominee: Nate Billings
Matt Story and Sister Dawn Mahan hug the chair of their mother, Frances "Fran" Ann
Williams, after the 20th Anniversary Remembrance Ceremony, Sunday, April 19,
2015, at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, site of the bombing of
the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman
Strong photo for the 20th anniversary. Shows the pain never goes away and really
hit home with our readers, as example from this email: Nate, I've never sent an
email to a photo journalist. My husband and I both still subscribe to the 'real' paper
(vs. internet viewing). About 10 minutes ago, I sat down at the coffee table and
picked up today's paper. I read the obituaries and the Life section. Then the big
picture on the front page caught my eye. In about an eighth of a second, my eyes
filled with tears. But what YOUR photo did for me was bring instant compassion and
love for that brother and sister I don't even know. Did you know your work has that
impact on us? Thank you, Mr. Billings. (P.S.: I worked at Presbyterian Hospital April,
1995, and saw our first trauma triage patients come through.)Alice C Baker

Best Design/Illustration
From: Clytie Bunyan
Nominee(s): Todd Pendleton, Chris Schoelen, Ebony Dallas, Steve Boaldin
Todd, Chris, Ebony and Steve did an outstanding job on illustrations for this years
Outlook special section, with very artistic portraits on each section front.

Best Headline(s)
From: Mike Sherman
Nominee: Rob Backus
BROOKS & DONE
AFTER SEVEN SEASONS AND ONE YEAR LEFT ON HIS CONTRACT, THUNDER COACH
SCOTT BROOKS HAS BEEN FIRED

Best Effort to Improve Accuracy

From: Tom Maupin
Nominee: Tom Maupin
We need to get history and military things correct. Slotting the April 29, Page
1 story about Dachau, Tom saw the story said Dachau had been in operation
since 1943. A few graphs later the story said Dachau was established in
1933. A quick Web search showed 1933 was correct. Even farther down, the
story said the camp was started the year Hitler came to power, which was
1933. The story and a cutline had: Maj. Gen. Robbie Asher, adjunct general
for the Oklahoma National Guard. The title is adjutant general, according
to the Oklahoma National Guard website.
This catch saved us from being embarrassed. 18 or 19? An Edmond story for
April 18 reported on a memorial service for the 18 Edmond residents killed in
the 1995 OKC bombing. Tom was slot and counted 19 names at the end of the
story. The local desk editor called Edmonds mayor and was told one of
the men listed was not an Edmond resident and should not be
included. The mayor said 18 was correct.
Name and wording problem -- wasnt a lifelong passion and name was wrong.
Slotting an April 2 story about a knife maker, Tom saw the story stated the
craft was a lifelong passion for Yukon resident Bill Kennedy, 59. But the
story also said Kennedy had been doing this for more than three
decades. Thats shorter than his 59 years. Tom rewrote the sentence.
Reading the items cutlines, Tom saw that the man was named Bill Kennedy Jr.
Tom had the rimmer call the reporter about the name. Tom also checked
Kennedys website, which listed Jr. Tom added Jr. to the story and the reporter
said Jr. was correct.
Tom also had many headline catches. Here are some:
Headline missed $1,000. Slotting an April 4 state brief, Tom saw this
headline: Researcher gets $21K swine grant. But the story had the
correct amount: The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Tuskegee
University have awarded $22,000 to Langston University .

A headline mistake caught. A rimmers deck headline for an April 14

business story read: Architects Elliott, Ainsworth create unusual design for
triangular property at NW 5 and Harrison in OKC. The comma implies and.
But the story said Chuck Ainsworth is a developer not an architect. Tom
changed the deck headline to: Architect, developer show unusual design
for triangular property at NW 5 and Harrison in OKC.

Headline had the wrong building. Slotting an April 16 story, Tom saw this
headline: Bridenstine campaign amends reports of political lunches at House.

That was wrong because at House implied the lunches were in the U.S.
House section of the Capitol. The story reported the lunches in question were
in a U.S. House office building. That was not the U.S. Capitol. For the first read
headline, Tom changed the headline wording to: political lunches at House
office building. The layout person later trimmed the headline to fit on his
page.
Headline was misleading. Slotting an April 16 business brief, Tom saw this
headline: Insurance official names counsel. Insurance official implied a
person in the insurance industry. The story was about state Insurance
Commissioner John Doak naming a general counsel for the state Insurance
Department. Tom changed the briefs headline to: Doak names agencys
counsel.

Special Recognition
From: Matt Price
Nominees: Brandy McDonnell, Carla Hinton, Heather Warlick, Dave Cathey,
Silas Allen, Paul Hellstern, Greg Singleton, Dave Morris, Doug Hoke, Jim
Beckel, Steve Gooch, Chris Landsberger, possibly others
Great job by a number of features and news staffers, photographers and others to
coordinate weeklong Arts Festival coverage. Doug's series on artists and their hats
was fantastic, and complemented by Heather's charming story. Each day brought a
new window into the last year of the festival at its current location.
http://newsok.com/children-experience-art-hands-first-at-the-festival-of-thearts/article/5412821
http://newsok.com/2015-festival-of-the-arts-fashions-found-at-oklahoma-citysfestival-of-the-arts/multimedia/video/4189622165001
http://newsok.com/festival-of-the-arts-street-performer-balances-juggling-andjokes/article/5413208
http://newsok.com/fashion-function-and-art-artists-form-special-connections-totheir-festival-hats/article/5413675
From: Rob Hibbard
Nominee: Richard Hall
Richard's work on the Resilience package is great. He kept the reader in mind and
made the site completely responsive so it can be viewed without problems on all
devices. OETA even copied his design, so that says something. Richard created an
interactive timeline called a story map for the Resilience package that helped
illustrate the OKC bombing timeline in a way we haven't done before on our digital
products.
www.oklahoman.com/resilience