The Salisbury Post picked up 16 awards in the N.C. Press Association’s annual editorial contest Thursday evening in Chapel Hill.
The Post won seven first-place awards, four seconds and five thirds. It was competing in the 12,500-34,999 circulation division.
Post winners were:
• The Post staff won first place in news enterprise reporting for last March’s series on government salaries, “The People’s Payroll.”
• Copy editor Andy Mooney received two awards: first place in illustrations for “Grading the lottery,” and third place in graphics for “Shrinking tax base creates dilemma.”
• Deirdre Parker Smith, book page editor and online editor, won first place in criticism for three reviews, “Will we let distraction rule us?”, “Piedmont Players’ ‘Three Musketeers’ save the day,” and “ ‘Georgia Bottoms’ sure to please.”
• Reporter Nathan Hardin won a first-place in news features for “Traffic circle splits community.”
• Columnist Mark Wineka received two awards, second place in profile features for his newsmaker of the year story on former District Attorney Bill Kenerly, and third place in business writing for “So long, ‘Cheers without beers.’ ”
• Education reporter Sarah Campbell won third place in education reporting for “Do AP tests make the grade?” and accompanying stories.
• Sports Editor Ronnie Gallagher received a first place in headline writing for “Night at the Maul,” “Title Wave” and “Fairway to Heaven.”
• The sports staff won two awards: second place in overall sports coverage and third in special sections for “Lords of the Ring,” the annual high school football section. The work was done by Gallagher, Mike London, Ryan Bisesi and David Shaw.
• The news staff received first place in news section design and second in appearance and design for pages done by Paris Goodnight, Andy Mooney and Andy Morrissey.
• Chris Verner, opinion page editor, won second place in serious columns for “A shock or a shot — an easy choice,” “Some quakes start from within” and “Some guys have all the luck.”
• Pages put together by Verner and Editor Elizabeth Cook received first place in editorial pages.
• Former Post reporter Shelley Smith won second place in feature writing for “Former Marine earns citizenship.”
The awards ceremony was held at the George Watts Hill Alumni Center in Chapel Hill.