BizWest wins multiple awards in regional press contests; reporter Watkins takes national award

BizWest has won four writing and advertising awards from the Colorado Press Association, and three awards from the Society of Professional Journalists Top of the Rockies contest, with reporter Ali C.M. Watkins taking a national SPJ award.

The press association, which would have held its annual convention this month, instead held a virtual convention with the annual awards contest results announced today. SPJ awards were announced Tuesday.

The four CPA awards were:

• Best Advertising Campaign — Second place, for an ad promoting the company’s BizWest Academy. Chad Collins and Bernie Simon, creative services staff members, were cited for the award.
• Best Small Space Ad — First place for an ad for Exodus Moving and Storage. Collins and Simon were also cited for this ad.
• Best Editorial Special Section — First place for the company’s annual Economic Profiles and Market Facts book. Cited were Christopher Wood, Ken Amundson, Dallas Heltzell, Simon and Collins.
• Best Investigative Story Package — Second place for Cannabis: The Next Frontier. Cited were Paula Aven Gladych, Dan Mika, Lucas High, Doug Storum and Amundson.

The three Top of the Rockies awards were:

• Editorials — First place, Christopher Wood.
• Enterprise Reporting — First place for Cannabis: The Next Frontier, Mika, High, Aven Gladych, Storum and Amundson.
• Business – General Report — Second for Workforce Woes, Amundson, Aven Gladych, High and Jensen Werley.

CPA is a Colorado-based contest; SPJ includes Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming media companies.

BizWest reporter Watkins won a national Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for work she performed while a student at Metropolitan State University in Denver.

She took first place in the General News Photography, Large Schools Division, for Twenty Years Later: Remembering Columbine.

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