Newsday wins 85 Press Club of Long Island awards

Newsday captured 85 awards during a ceremony by the Press Club of Long Island Thursday, and the club inducted Newsday associate editor and columnist Joye Brown into the Long Island Journalism Hall of Fame.

The awards honored Newsday presentations for video, digital and narrative categories. The 2022 PCLI Media Awards Dinner was held at the Marriott Melville Long Island.

Brown, an award-winning journalist who has spent almost four decades at Newsday as a writer and editor, was inducted along with longtime News 12 reporter Drew Scott, Bryan Boyhan of the Sag Harbor Express, and past president and board trustee of the Press Club Chris R. Vaccaro, who also is an adjunct assistant professor at Hofstra University and executive director at the Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame.

"The Press Club of Long Island is thrilled to be able to have an in-person awards ceremony again after a two-year hiatus. The pandemic has been tough on the news industry, but it's also been a period of outstanding journalism that deserves to be celebrated," said PCLI president Brendan O'Reilly.

Newsday won 17 awards in the Digital division, 35 in Narrative, 15 in Video and 18 in Visual. This includes 40 first-place awards.

Among the winners:

Newsday's "Policing on LI" coverage received first-place honors in the Crime and Justice and Investigative Narrative categories, with awards for David M. Schwartz, Jim Baumbach, Paul LaRocco, Sandra Peddie and Jeffrey Basinger. Two related videos also won first-place awards — " 'He's going to kill me.' JoAnna Bird's story" by Newsday staff and "The cost of body cameras" by Basinger, Cecilia Dowd, Chris Ware, Howard Schnapp, Randee Daddona, Thomas A. Ferrara and James Carbone. 

Newsday's entertainment staff won a first-place award in the Narrative/Arts category for "The Longest Intermission: How 5 LI performers are coping when they can’t perform," and a related video won first place in the Arts Video category, featuring Faith Jessie, Daddona, Barry Sloan, Ware, J. Conrad Williams and Mario Gonzalez.

James T. Madore won a first-place award in the Narrative/Business category for "Problems with Pandemic Relief." Erin Serpico won a first-place award in the Digital/Coronavirus category for "Newsday’s guides to coronavirus resources." David Olson and Matt Clark won a first-place award in the category of Narrative/Coronavirus for "Brentwood's Grim Virus Milestone."

Williams, who is also a member of the group's Hall of Fame, won Best Photojournalist-Still Imagery. Gabriella Vukelic and Priscila Korb won a first-place award in the category of Digital/Best Use of Social Media by an Organization for digital presentation for the "Gabby Petito Case."

Newsday TV took first place for Best Use of Streaming Services-All Platforms, and Newsday.com was named Best Website. 

"Congratulations to my colleagues for the breadth of their awards from the Press Club of Long Island this year," said Deborah Henley, Newsday editor. "And we’re proud that our colleague Joye Brown joins the newest inductees in the Long Island Journalism Hall of Fame. As reporter, editor, editorial writer and columnist, Joye has won many local and national awards for her work since joining us in 1983. Congratulations to Joye and fellow inductees Bryan Boyhan, Drew Scott and Chris R. Vaccaro."

The PCLI’s mission is to promote and recognize ethical journalism practices, encourage social and intellectual exchange among Long Island journalists, raise public awareness of the profession and promote the development of future journalists from the ranks of high school and college students, according to the group.

By Craig Schneider

craig.schneider@newsday.comScraigo

Craig Schneider is a Long Island native and Stony Brook University alumnus. He joined Newsday as a general assignment reporter in January 2018 after 20 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.