Henrico Citizen earns 6 Virginia Press Association awards

The Henrico Citizen earned six awards – including a Best in Show – in the 2020 Virginia Press Association’s News and Advertising Contest, whose results were announced this week by the VPA.

Contributing videographer Tyrone Nelson, Jr. won the Best in Show Non-Daily Digital award and first-place in the Non-Daily Group 4 video category for a video documentary of the Call to Action Rally and March in Eastern Henrico last summer.

It is the Citizen's first Best in Show award in its 20-year history.

“I was really impressed with the Henrico Citizen’s video and some of the elements used to tell the story,” a judge wrote of the video. “Lead off the opening scene with a time stamp, and transition to using cellphone images and social media messages to lead the viewer. Spectacular editing which makes for good storytelling. Clearly my choice for Best of Show in this category.”

Judges selected the video as the best piece of non-daily digital journalism from among all first-place winners across all digital categories in the statewide competition.

Competing in the Non-Daily Group 4 category, the Citizen also won three first-place awards, one second-place award and one third-place award. The first place awards came in two writing categories and one video category.

Citizen Publisher and Editor Tom Lappas won one in the health, science and environmental writing category for a three-article entry related to COVID-19 issues in Henrico County, including the early outbreak of cases at Canterbury Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center; an examination of COVID-19 cases by ZIP code last May and what that data might, or might not, show; and an analysis of the first federal statistics about the virus’s impact on nursing homes in Henrico County.

Judges termed Lappas’s work “thorough, informative reporting on the pandemic.”

Contributing journalist Dina Weinstein also earned a first-place award in the in-depth or investigative reporting category, for her series of articles about evictions in Henrico County. (Read part 1; part 2; and part 3.)

“What makes this series stand out over the others is that the reporter avoids the typical alphabet soup from acronyms of government agencies, and instead lets real people speak for themselves, and these people are eloquent in their desperation and in their gratitude for any help that comes their way,” judges wrote of Weinstein’s articles.

Lappas won a second-place award for breaking news writing, for an article about vandalism at United States Postal Service outdoor mail collection boxes at three Henrico post offices last October.

“Breaks down the issue well and does a good job of contacting local elected leaders for their insight,” judges wrote of Lappas’s article.

Lappas also won third place in the government writing category for a three-article entry that included pieces about how Henrico slashed $99 million from its proposed budget last year; the Henrico Board of Supervisors’ consideration of a civilian review board and plans to change the name of the Confederate Hills Recreation Center in Highland Springs; and the dedication of the Frank J. Thornton YMCA Aquatic Center in Eastern Henrico.

The Non-Daily Group 4 category includes all non-daily publications in the VPA with print circulations of 9,000 or more per issue. The Citizen competed in that category and not the smaller online-only category because it published its print edition through March 2020 before discontinuing it and shifting entirely online.

Since its inception in 2001, the Citizen has earned 61 awards from the Virginia Press Association and 237 in total from industry organizations.