Washington Post Wins Press Association Honors

The Washington Post was named "Newspaper of the Year" in its circulation category by the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association and has won several first-place awards from the Virginia Press Association.

The paper's winning entries came from almost every department of the newsroom: Metro, Investigative, Financial, National, Sports, Editorial and Health. The Maryland-Delaware-DC association gave The Post 16 first-place awards, 13 second places and nine "best in show" awards, making it the most successful daily in the over-75,000 circulation category. From the Virginia association, the newspaper won seven first-place awards and five second places.

Both press associations awarded The Post first place in investigative reporting for its 12-part series "Who Killed Chandra Levy?" The year-long investigative report -- written by Sari Horwitz, Scott Higham and Sylvia Moreno -- revealed information showing that police work in the case of the intern who went missing and was found dead was riddled with mistakes and missed opportunities. After the series ran, a new team of detectives reviewed evidence, interviewed witnesses and built a case against a suspect featured in the series, Ingmar Guandique. Guandique recently was formally arrested and charged.

The Post also won acclaim from both associations for breaking news. The Metro staff won first place from the Maryland-Delaware-DC association and second place from the Virginia association for its coverage of a fatal crash at an illegal street race in Maryland. A car plowed into the crowd, killing eight people. The Virginia association gave its first-place award for breaking news to The Post's business desk for its coverage of the financial crisis.

Both press associations also gave multiple awards for Post feature stories, including one by reporter Wil Haygood that followed the life of a black butler who began working at the White House during segregation and lived to see an African American elected president.

-- William Wan

Maryland-Delaware-DC

Press Association Awards 2008:

Local Column -- critical thinking: 2nd Place to Ruth Marcus, "The Socialist Scare"