Times, travel editor win national awards

By Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 30, 2000

The Travel section of the St. Petersburg Times has been judged best in North America among midsize newspapers.

The honor, as well as a writing award for Travel Editor Robert N. Jenkins, were among results announced today by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation, which annually conducts the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition.

Judges were Department of Journalism faculty members at the University of Florida, who studied 1,447 entries in 26 categories, the largest numbers in the competition's 16 years. Work submitted was published or broadcast in 1999.

Of the Times' entry, the judges noted: "Clearly the front-runner. Great combination of layout, interesting copy, large newshole and top-rate photos. Articles about travel issues and places to go. Varied section fronts invite readers. Knowledgeable use of color. . . . Stories have an air of being written with a general audience in mind, rather than a stereotypical travel section reader."

Designers of the three Times sections entered were Audra Buck and Nikki Life. Jenkins also came in third, among 63 entries in the category of marine travel, for his article on sailing aboard a schooner off the Maine coast last summer.

The Times won the Gold award for 1996 and Silver for 1995 and 1998. Jenkins won the Bronze award for best article on foreign travel for 1998.

Among other honors for 1999 work, the Baltimore Sun was the Gold winner for papers with circulations of at least 500,000, and the Los Angeles Daily News was judged best for papers with circulations less than 350,000. The Times won for papers with circulations between 350,000 and 500,000. Hemispheres was judged best among magazines publishing at least monthly, and National Geographic Traveler won Gold for magazines publishing less than monthly.

The Miami Herald placed second in the midsize circulation category, the only other Florida paper to be honored in any of the categories.

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