APRILS BEST OF THE MONTH WINNERS

Congratulations to Brianna Bailey, who was selected Best Overall for April. Brianna conceptualized her #walkonwestern, trudged the 27 miles from Edmond to Moore -- photographing, tweeting and interacting with Oklahoma Cityans as she went each day -- then wrote up a story that helped our citys residents learn more about the varied places in their own hometown. Business Editor Don Mecoy said: Brianna hit on many aspects of our mission statement with imagination, verve, and good old-fashioned shoe leather. Her effort would not have been as successful if she did not collaborate closely with folks in our Photo, Video and Social Media departments to help chronicle her progress from one end of Western to the other. Excellent collaboration!

Winners in other categories:

Best Beat or Breaking News

From: Robby Trammell

Nominee: Rick Green

Play State texting-driving ban is on way to becoming law

http://archive.newsok.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=Oklahoman&BaseHref=DOK/2015/04/30&PageLabelPrint=1A&EntityId=Ar00101&ViewMode=GIFBest Feature Story

From: Robby Trammell

Nominee: Nolan Clay

Page 1 Ex-FBI special agent credits higher power for his part in bombing case

http://archive.newsok.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=Oklahoman&BaseHref=DOK/2015/04/13&PageLabelPrint=1A&EntityId=Ar00102&ViewMode=GIFBest Specialty FeatureFrom: Matt Price

Nominee: Carla Hinton

The Prince of Peace Easter pageant held in the Holy City of the Wichitas at the Wichita Wildlife Refuge in southwest Oklahoma is celebrating its 90th year. Carla Hinton did a great job capturing the feel of the event for a page 1 Easter story.

http://newsok.com/article/5407434Best Sports Story

From: Mike Sherman

Nominee: Darnell Mayberry

On the day James Harden was set to play the Thunder in Oklahoma City, with ABC broadcasting the game, Darnell gave 13 reasons -- 13 for Harden's No. 13 jersey -- why OKC's Harden-to-Houston trade will never die. It was as well-reported, analyzed and presented list and it was the most viewed story on NewsOK for April with 94,000 page views.

http://newsok.com/article/5407507Best Business Story or Business Feature

From: Don Mecoy

Nominee: Paul Monies

Paul had to quickly turn around a very technical report from the U.S. Geological Survey that concluded that broadened the scope of what it considers to be induced earthquakes in Oklahoma. After posting a quick online version, Paul sorted through a lot of data, contacted numerous sources and produced a clear version for our readers.

http://newsok.com/article/5413001Best Project/Enterprise/In-Depth Story

From: Don Mecoy

Nominee: Brianna Bailey

Brianna's #walkonwestern was a smashing success. She conceived the idea, walked the walk and then talked the talk -- both online and in print. She opened a window for our readers to their sprawling city that is not often seen, highlighting businesses, neighborhoods and personalities along the way. She tweeted, generating the trending #walkonwestern hashtag, provided photo and video, provided content for a live article and wrote a heck of a story.

http://newsok.com/article/5413826From: Phillip OConnor

Nominee: Juliana Keeping

Juliana's words, along with Doug Hoke's portraits, told the intimate, heroic and heartbreaking stories of about dozen Vietnamese refugees who escaped their war-ravaged country and are now proud to call America and Oklahoma home. The short vignettes and video interviews helped capture the essence of the immigrant experience and the human impact of a war that ended 40 years ago.

http://newsok.com/article/5414885Best Watchdog

From: Robby Trammell

Nominee(s): Andrew Knittle/Jaclyn Cosgrove

Play/Centerpiece Oklahomas Deadliest Month; 61 lives were claimed by prescription drug overdose deaths in March 2014

http://archive.newsok.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=Oklahoman&BaseHref=DOK/2015/04/12&PageLabelPrint=1A&EntityId=Ar00110&ViewMode=GIFBest Column/Opinion/First-Person

From: Mike Sherman

Nominee: Berry Tramel

Of all the columns Berry Tramel has written for The Oklahoman, none have gotten a bigger response, or touched more readers than his column written on the day his mother died at age 82.

http://newsok.com/eighty-one-years-of-health-and-joy-and-when-the-health-went-the-joy-didnt/article/5408824Best Blog/Social Media Effort

From: Tom Maupin

Nominee: Tom Maupin

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153263376264074.1073741833.86672804073&type=3That is the link to my Camera on the City album in the newspaper's Facebook page. In early April, Tiffany Gibson created the album for my downtown photos. The photos show day and nights views of downtown Oklahoma City and areas of the Myriad Gardens. Twenty-four photos were posted during April. They were posted April 7, 14 and 28. By 7:30 p.m. April 30, there were 113 likes, 15 shares, and 4 comments for the overall package. Many of the individual photos also had likes and comments.

Before April, I already had submitted to the paper's Facebook page 23 other photos from January to March. Those photos included images from our old building and night shots of our new building.

Best Photo

From: Doug Hoke

Nominee: Nate Billings

Matt Story and Sister Dawn Mahan hug the chair of their mother, Frances "Fran" Ann Williams, after the 20th Anniversary Remembrance Ceremony, Sunday, April 19, 2015, at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, site of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman

Strong photo for the 20th anniversary. Shows the pain never goes away and really hit home with our readers, as example from this email: Nate, I've never sent an email to a photo journalist. My husband and I both still subscribe to the 'real' paper (vs. internet viewing). About 10 minutes ago, I sat down at the coffee table and picked up today's paper. I read the obituaries and the Life section. Then the big picture on the front page caught my eye. In about an eighth of a second, my eyes filled with tears. But what YOUR photo did for me was bring instant compassion and love for that brother and sister I don't even know. Did you know your work has that impact on us? Thank you, Mr. Billings. (P.S.: I worked at Presbyterian Hospital April, 1995, and saw our first trauma triage patients come through.)Alice C Baker

Best Design/Illustration

From: Clytie Bunyan

Nominee(s): Todd Pendleton, Chris Schoelen, Ebony Dallas, Steve Boaldin

Todd, Chris, Ebony and Steve did an outstanding job on illustrations for this years Outlook special section, with very artistic portraits on each section front.

Best Headline(s)

From: Mike Sherman

Nominee: Rob Backus

BROOKS & DONE

AFTER SEVEN SEASONS AND ONE YEAR LEFT ON HIS CONTRACT, THUNDER COACH SCOTT BROOKS HAS BEEN FIRED

Best Effort to Improve Accuracy

From: Tom Maupin

Nominee: Tom Maupin

We need to get history and military things correct. Slotting the April 29, Page 1 story about Dachau, Tom saw the story said Dachau had been in operation since 1943. A few graphs later the story said Dachau was established in 1933. A quick Web search showed 1933 was correct. Even farther down, the story said the camp was started the year Hitler came to power, which was 1933. The story and a cutline had: Maj. Gen. Robbie Asher, adjunct general for the Oklahoma National Guard. The title is adjutant general, according to the Oklahoma National Guard website.

This catch saved us from being embarrassed. 18 or 19? An Edmond story for April 18 reported on a memorial service for the 18 Edmond residents killed in the 1995 OKC bombing. Tom was slot and counted 19 names at the end of the story. The local desk editor called Edmonds mayor and was told one of the men listed was not an Edmond resident and should not be included. The mayor said 18 was correct.

Name and wording problem -- wasnt a lifelong passion and name was wrong. Slotting an April 2 story about a knife maker, Tom saw the story stated the craft was a lifelong passion for Yukon resident Bill Kennedy, 59. But the story also said Kennedy had been doing this for more than three decades. Thats shorter than his 59 years. Tom rewrote the sentence. Reading the items cutlines, Tom saw that the man was named Bill Kennedy Jr. Tom had the rimmer call the reporter about the name. Tom also checked Kennedys website, which listed Jr. Tom added Jr. to the story and the reporter said Jr. was correct.

Tom also had many headline catches. Here are some:

Headline missed $1,000. Slotting an April 4 state brief, Tom saw this headline: Researcher gets $21K swine grant. But the story had the correct amount: The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Tuskegee University have awarded $22,000 to Langston University .

A headline mistake caught. A rimmers deck headline for an April 14 business story read: Architects Elliott, Ainsworth create unusual design for triangular property at NW 5 and Harrison in OKC. The comma implies and. But the story said Chuck Ainsworth is a developer not an architect. Tom changed the deck headline to: Architect, developer show unusual design for triangular property at NW 5 and Harrison in OKC.

Headline had the wrong building. Slotting an April 16 story, Tom saw this headline: Bridenstine campaign amends reports of political lunches at House. That was wrong because at House implied the lunches were in the U.S. House section of the Capitol. The story reported the lunches in question were in a U.S. House office building. That was not the U.S. Capitol. For the first read headline, Tom changed the headline wording to: political lunches at House office building. The layout person later trimmed the headline to fit on his page.

Headline was misleading. Slotting an April 16 business brief, Tom saw this headline: Insurance official names counsel. Insurance official implied a person in the insurance industry. The story was about state Insurance Commissioner John Doak naming a general counsel for the state Insurance Department. Tom changed the briefs headline to: Doak names agencys counsel.Special Recognition

From: Matt Price

Nominees: Brandy McDonnell, Carla Hinton, Heather Warlick, Dave Cathey, Silas Allen, Paul Hellstern, Greg Singleton, Dave Morris, Doug Hoke, Jim Beckel, Steve Gooch, Chris Landsberger, possibly others

Great job by a number of features and news staffers, photographers and others to coordinate weeklong Arts Festival coverage. Doug's series on artists and their hats was fantastic, and complemented by Heather's charming story. Each day brought a new window into the last year of the festival at its current location.

http://newsok.com/children-experience-art-hands-first-at-the-festival-of-the-arts/article/5412821http://newsok.com/2015-festival-of-the-arts-fashions-found-at-oklahoma-citys-festival-of-the-arts/multimedia/video/4189622165001http://newsok.com/festival-of-the-arts-street-performer-balances-juggling-and-jokes/article/5413208http://newsok.com/fashion-function-and-art-artists-form-special-connections-to-their-festival-hats/article/5413675From: Rob Hibbard

Nominee: Richard Hall

Richard's work on the Resilience package is great. He kept the reader in mind and made the site completely responsive so it can be viewed without problems on all devices. OETA even copied his design, so that says something. Richard created an interactive timeline called a story map for the Resilience package that helped illustrate the OKC bombing timeline in a way we haven't done before on our digital products.

www.oklahoman.com/resilience