Merced Sun-Star honored by publishers association

The Merced Sun-Star received top honors for best column and best editorial comment among daily newspapers of similar size in California.

Former Sun-Star health columnist Ana Ibarra was awarded the top honor for her 2015 project “Violence and Health,” a three-part series in which she examined the impact that Merced’s soaring rate of violent crimes has on people whose lives are impacted by the bloodshed. Mike Dunbar, the opinion editor for both the Sun-Star and The Modesto Bee, won first place for best editorial comment.

The honors were among six first- or second-place awards won by the Sun-Star among small daily papers in the 2015 Better Newspapers Contest sponsored by the California Newspaper Publishers Association. Winners of the contest were announced Saturday at the organization’s convention in San Francisco.

The Sun-Star finished second in the coveted general excellence category for newspapers with print circulations below 15,000.

It was an impressive showing for Ibarra, whose series also won the first-place honor for columns at the 28th annual George F. Gruner Awards in February. Ibarra resigned from the Sun-Star earlier this year to accept a position with Kaiser Health News.

The Sun-Star also collected second-place awards for its local government coverage by Rob Parsons. Photographer Andrew Kuhn won second place in artistic photo and sports feature photo.

“I am so thrilled for our dedicated staff at the Sun-Star,” Managing Editor Michelle Morgante said. “We’re a small news team competing against a long list of newsrooms with greater resources, so I am very happy to see the team’s hard work recognized by our industry peers.”

In the general excellence competition, papers were asked to submit two consecutive editions from November 2015. The Sun-Star’s entries included its coverage of the Nov. 4 stabbing attack at UC Merced, which left four people wounded. The attacker, a freshman computer science student, was shot and killed by campus police.

Contest entries were evaluated by a nationwide panel of judges for their overall excellence in news coverage, quality of writing, use of photos and graphics, page design and advertising.

This story was originally published May 1, 2016 at 5:33 PM with the headline "Merced Sun-Star honored by publishers association."