Steamboat Pilot & Today

The Steamboat Pilot & Today collected 17 awards Friday night at the Colorado Associated Press Editors and Reporters banquet.

The Colorado Associated Press annually honors the work of member newspapers across the state. The Steamboat Pilot & Today competes in the category for small daily newspapers with circulations of 10,000 or less.

The Pilot & Today collected eight first-place awards and eight second-place awards.

The newspaper won an honorable mention in the General Excellence category. The Durango Herald took first place, and the Pilot & Today's sister newspaper, the Craig Daily Press, won second.

The Pilot & Today won numerous awards for "Changing Times: Ranching in Routt County," a five-part series published in the summer. Participants in the series included reporter Christine Metz, photographer John F. Russell, page designer Meg Wortman and city editor Melissa Roddy.

Metz won first place in business writing for "Weathering the Market," a story in the series that looked at the economics of ranching. Wortman won first place in graphics for "Counting Cows," an illustration showing the changes in ranching costs during the past 40 years.

The package of photos Russell shot for "Changing Times" took first place in continuing photo coverage, and his photo of a cattle round-up next to a curving stream took second in the feature category.

"Changing Times" took second place in the best series category, and the reprint of the series won second in the special section category.

Russell won five other awards for his writing and photography. He won first place in sports column writing and first place in photo illustration for his image of two Soroco High School track athletes in the hallway of the school. Russell also won second place in sports photo, honorable mention in sports photo and second place in news photo.

Education reporter Brent Boyer won first place in the education reporting category for a story about the lack of diversity in the Steamboat Springs School District.

Reporter Autumn Phillips captured first place in spot news writing for her coverage of the funeral of Staff Sgt. Mark Lawton, the Hayden soldier killed in Iraq.

Reporter Susan Cunningham won first place in the environmental reporting category for "Beware of Beetles," a story that looked at the widespread damage caused by beetles in the national forest.

The Pilot & Today's Web site -- www.steamboatpilot.com -- won second in the Web site category.

Creative Director David Taylor and photographer Tyler Arroyo won second place in photo illustration.