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Philadelphia SPJ Awards: Pick Your Punchline!Last night was the illustrious awards dinner for the Philadelphia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. And just who showed up from our city’s two largest papers? That’s right: Almost no one. Only one person attended from the Inquirer, which was SPJ chapter treasurer David Sullivan. And only two people were there from the Daily News: one (David Maialetti) left before dinner to go cover a fight and the other was my father. So, it’s time for a nice game of pick your punchline! Nobody from the Inquirer showed up at the SPJ awards because…
Nobody from the Daily News showed up at the SPJ awards because…
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Someone from here might have gone if anyone (aside from your dad and David Mialetti) knew about them.
So, like, did we win?
As far as the Inquirer, I think they’re afraid to enter local awards contests because they’d be embarassed if they lose. The only time I went to an awards ceremony was the PAPME Awards in Harrisburg a couple of years ago; when I saw the list of winners I was stunned there was not one Inky story. Then I ran into Lil Swanson (an Inq. editor) at the dinner, who sheepishly told me they “forgot” to enter.
But I think they “forget” these kind of things a lot.
Actually board member Howie Shapiro from The Inquirer was also there. Each news organization that enters has a contest contact who is responsible for letting people know who won and getting people to attend. The Bucks Courier, for example, brought 19 people. I heard from the Inquirer and Daily News contacts so I know they were informed. Both papers were very well represented in entries. SPJ does not control who shows up. — David Sullivan, chapter treasurer.