Climate Magazine was honored Sept. 30 with 17 awards in the San Francisco Press Club’s 44th Annual Greater Bay Area Journalism Awards, including first prize for overall excellence in the magazines/trade publications category.
In addition to the top award, Climate was honored with 16 others for work which appeared in the magazine in 2020. As was true last year, because of the Covid pandemic, the awards were presented in an online “virtual” ceremony. A total of 333 entries was received, and they were judged by three press clubs in other parts of the country: San Diego, Milwaukee and New Orleans.
Two stories which appeared in Climate’s July 2020 issue with Fourth of July reflections about America from varying perspectives were honored with first-place awards, one for commentary on the Great American Songbook by writer and musician Scott Dailey. Writer Don Shoecraft captured a first-place award for a piece called “A More Perfect Union—Freedom.”
Climate’s Creative Director Jim Kirkland won a first-place award for the cover design for that issue.
Shoecraft received a second-place award for investigative reporting for his examination of vehicle license plate scanners and their role in law enforcement’s data collection, as well two awards in the general news category. He won a first prize for a story about the national debate about police reform and a second-place award for a story about the changes in San Carlos’s industrial area.
Dailey won a second-place award for a feature about the difficulties in bridging the political divide in “red and blue” America. Kirkland won a third-place award for the cover design for that issue entitled “So Why Can’t We ‘All Just Get Along?’”
History columnist Jim Clifford received a first prize for a column about a “kid’s eye view” of Redwood City in 1889.
Kirkland, who is responsible for the magazine’s eye-catching layout and graphics, won a first- and a second-place award for photography illustrating stories about leaving the Bay Area and about going to school during the pandemic. He also received a third-place award for writing a feature story about Hiller Aviation Museum Vice President Willie Turner.
Janet McGovern, Climate’s editor, won three awards for her writing, including first- and second-place awards in the light features category. The first story was about a Belmont couple’s recreation of an Old West bar in their home, and the second-place winner was about the striking parallels between the Spanish influenza and the Covid pandemics. She also won a third-place award in the business/technology category for a profile of the Davies Appliance family. McGovern also won a first-place in the headline-writing category.
The award for overall excellence went to Kirkland, McGovern and to Climate’s Publisher Adam Alberti.
