Mercury staffers win Pa. newspaper awards

Most people are surprised to learn that I have a day job. I work for newspaper. My primary responsibility is getting a newspaper out each day. That includes finding stories, assigning them to reporters and editing the finished copy. It also involves laying out the pages.

Writing columns is something I do in my spare time, although it has brought me a following across Pennsylvania in the past couple of years.

While I appreciate the recognition I've received for my columns, I'm especially proud of the job the staff of The Mercury does producing a newspaper seven days a week, 365-days-a-year.

Here's some news well-deserved recognition for the staff of The Mercury:

The Mercury coverage of Schuylkill River flooding last summer recently garnered two news coverage awards, honoring staff writers for their comprehensive reporting of water damage and cleanup in the area.

Staff writers Evan Brandt, Sarah Fleener, Carl Hessler Jr., Michelle Karas and Brandie Kessler and intern Lindsay Moyer won a first-place Keystone Press Award for ongoing news coverage.

The Keystone awards are the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association's annual contest for newspapers throughout the state.

The same group of writers also won a third place for flood stories in the enterprise reporting category of the Keystone Society of Professional Journalists Spotlight contest.

The staff previously won a Suburban Newspaper Association award for the same group of stories.

The flood coverage awards were for news stories printed June 28 to July 7 detailing the damage, water rescues, and community cleanup effort that followed the flooding of the river, which crested at 21 feet, the highest level since Hurricane Agnes in 1972.

Mercury sports editor Don Seeley also won a first-place Keystone Press Award in the category of sports beat reporting. Seeley won for his extensive coverage of high school football in 2006.

Included in the entry were game stories, previews, player features and the year-end package of statistics compiled by Seeley.

In the SPJ Spotlight contest, Charles H. Pitchford won a third-place award for page design. Pitchford, who is The Mercury's Sunday editor, won for a Sunday Entertainment page design, “Finding Gold.”

City editor Tony Phyrillas also won a third-place award in the Spotlight contest for commentary in a daily newspaper. The entry included three columns written by Phyrillas for The Mercury's Opinion page during 2006.

This was the third time Phyrillas was recognized for column writing in the past year. He received a first-place award from Suburban Newspapers of America and a second-place citation from the Society of Professional Journalists, Greater Philadelphia Chapter.

The awards for the Keystone and Spotlight contests will be presented May 19 at ceremonies in Harrisburg.

Phyrillas wins award for columns

I found out today that I won another award for my column-writing.

This one is a third-place showing in the Commentary category for daily newspapers in the Spotlight Contest sponsored by the Keystone Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. (I'm pretty sure there were more than three entries).

Congratulations to first place winner Mitchel Olszak of the New Castle News and second place winner Marsha Keefer of the Beaver County Times.

The SPJ contest is open to all newspapers in Pennsylvania. (The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review won a ton of awards in this year's competition. Way to go, guys.)

The Mercury won a total of three awards. In addition to my award for columns, the newspaper received a third-place recognition in layout by Sunday Editor Chuck Pitchford and a third-place in the Enterprise Story for our coverage of last June's flooding. The paper won several other awards for the flooding coverage.

It's always nice to be recognized by peers. Earlier this year, I won first place in the Best Opinion Column category from Suburban Newspapers of America, which has 2,000 members.

I won a second place award last year from the Philadelphia Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

And let's not forget being named one of the 10 leading Greek-American bloggers in the world by Odyssey magazine, which has 80,000 readers in 45 countries.

Phyrillas named top Greek-American blogger

Some things come out of left field.

I just found out I was named one of the 10 leading Greek-American bloggers by a magazine with international readership.

"Odyssey: The World of Greece" is a bimonthly magazine based in Washington, D.C., with offices in Greece. The glossy magazine highlights the achievements of Greeks and Greek-Americans in the areas of the arts, entertainment, politics and the media.

In the newest issue of the 98-page magazine, "Odyssey" media writer Lydia Maniatis places the spotlight on the growing influence of Internet bloggers in a story titled, "I blog, therefore, I am."

Only two political sites were mentioned in the magazines' Top 10 list.

Maniatis says Phyrillas "gives us his muscular spin on the politics of his home state and the country at large" at his conservative blog, http://tonyphyrillas.blogspot.com

Muscular spin? I like it. I might start using that as my calling card.

The other politcal blogger mentioned in the article is Arianna Huffington, who oversees the ultra-liberal site, www.huffingtonpost.com

(Huffington is her married name. Arianna's maiden name is Stassinopoulos. And you thought Phyrillas was hard to pronounce.)

Odyssey magazine has 80,000 readers in 25 countries on six continents.

Thanks to everyone at Odyssey magazine for the recognition and the kind words. Maybe I can scrape together the $48 to subscribe.

In the meantime, you can enjoy my "muscular" ramblings for free. I'm averaging 3,000 visitors a month at this site, http://tonyphyrillas.blogspot.com

And the winner is ... Tony Phyrillas

It's award season. Although I was shut out at the Golden Globes, I have some good news to share with loyal readers.

I learned today that I won First Place for Best Opinion Column in the 2006 Editorial Contest sponsored by the Suburban Newspapers of America, a national trade association with more than 2,000-member newspapers.

My newspaper, The Mercury, won a total of seven awards in the contest. Although the list of winners is long and I just glanced through it, I believe The Mercury received more awards than any other newspaper in Pennsylvania.

I've received several state awards in the past, including two first-place Keystone Awards from the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, but the SNA recognition is the first national award for me. It's always nice to be recognized by your peers.

I'll try to make my acceptance speech brief. I don't want to forget all the little people who got me here. First, I have to thank my readers, who started following me in the pages of The Mercury three years ago and continue to find me today on the Web. (I've had 4,000 visitors to this site in the past two months).

I'd like to thank all the bloggers who direct people to me, especially Chris Lilik at GrassrootsPA and John Micek, the maestro of Capitol Ideas. I start my day at both of those sites. (I mentioned the other blog sites I post to or that link to my columns in an earlier posting about my 2006 adventures in radio and television).

I also need to thank Ed Rendell and John Perzel for providing me with an endless supply of material to write about. And judging from the antics so far this year of the comedy team of Rendell and Perzel, I will be drawing from the same well for a long time to come.

The 2006 SNA contest was judged based on three writing samples. I don't have the actual columns in front of me, but I can bet they dealt with the sad state of affairs that passes for state government in Pennsylvania.

I'll try not to let all the attention go to my head, but does anyone know the name of a good agent?