Day staff win 16 New England Associated Press awards

New London — The Day received 16 awards in the New England Associated Press News Executives Association's 2012 contest, including four first-place honors.

Day political reporter JC Reindl received the top prize in the investigative reporting category for "'First Five' firm skirts rules," a story about the questionable business practices of the Internet ticket merchant TicketNetwork, which was offered $7.75 million in state aid under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's "First Five" economic development program.

The awards were announced in an email sent Friday. All winners will be honored at a Sept. 14 conference in Worcester, Mass.

First-place honors also went to music writer Rick Koster and to reporter Joe Wojtas.

Koster was recognized for his music coverage, which includes the Song Spinners series, concert reviews and his music blog.

Wojtas was recognized in the sports feature category for "Somebody had to go first," a story on the pioneering runner Julia Chase-Brand, the first woman to compete in the Manchester Road Race.

Photographer Tim Cook took first place for deadline news for his photo "Neighbor battles fire."

The Day was recognized in each of the contest's four categories, which are writing, photo, online and design. Its website, theday.com, finished second in the overall website category.

The awards came in the Class II division, which includes the Concord (N.H.) Monitor, The Salem (Mass.) News and The Standard-Times of New Bedford, Mass., among other publications.

Second-place awards went to Lee Howard for "A new mission for Pfizer," Paul Choiniere in the editorial category, and Jennifer McDermott, Sasha Goldstein, Joe Wojtas, Judy Benson, Jeffrey A. Johnson and Jenna Cho for the 9/11 commemorative section "Remembrance. Resilience. Resolve."

Third-place awards went to Vickie Fulkerson for "John Kelley, running legend, dies at 80," Lee Howard for "Unemployed reach end of benefits," Tim Martin for his feature photo "Eagle Release," Sean Elliot's sports action photo "In Your Eye," Milton Moore in the business page design category for "Casinos' slot revenues slide," Jill Blanchette for "Irene turns out the lights" in the Page 1 design category, and Chuck Banning's "For ECC, a three feat" for sports page design.

a.nunes@theday.com