Tribune takes top awards in press association contest

The Salt Lake Tribune won 13 first-place awards, and 29 awards overall, in the Utah Press Association's Better Newspaper Contest for work published in 2012.

The Tribune received the association's Community Service Award, given to the newspaper for its series on the financial difficulties facing the municipally funded fiber optic network known as UTOPIA. The newspaper also took the General Excellence award.

The annual contest is open to daily and weekly newspapers throughout Utah, and is divided into four categories according to circulation. The Tribune competes with the largest circulation newsrooms in the state. The awards were announced at UPA's convention on March 23.

Among the awards won by The Tribune:

>> First, second and third place for best general news reporting. The first place award went to a story by Brooke Adams and Melinda Rogers examining the legal case building against Josh Powell before he killed himself and his sons in a fire in Washington.

>> First, second and third in investigative reporting. The top award was for the UTOPIA series written by a team of Tribune reporters led by Tony Semerad and Vince Horiuchi.

>> Best editorial, for the newspaper editorial board's endorsement of President Barack Obama in the 2012 election.

>> First, second and third in featuring reporting, with the top award going to a profile of a high school basketball player who is also a young mother, written by Kyle Goon.

>> First and second in best news series, with The Tribune's coverage of Josh Powell taking the top award.

>> Best feature series, for coverage of Utah health companies' innovations in the face of health-care reform, by Kirsten Stewart.

>> Best column, to metro news columnist Peg McEntee.

>> First, second and third to Tribune sports columnists Gordon Monson, Kurt Kragthorpe and Bill Oram. The trio also won the trifecta for best sports story.

>> Best sports photo by Chris Detrick, a shot taken immediately after the University of Utah defeated Brigham Young University in football.

>> Best front page.

>> Best sports page.

The best news website award went to the Provo Daily Herald.

Best spot news coverage went to The Spectrum in St.George for its coverage of a man wanted for murder in Colorado who stole a commercial jet in St. George and committed suicide before getting the plane off the ground.

The Daily Utah Chronicle at the University of Utah won for best news photograph.