Citizen wins press awards

The Carrboro Citizen has won another set of awards from the North Carolina Press Association for its website, writing and editorials.

At a ceremony last week during the press association’s Winter Institute, Citizen publisher Robert Dickson accepted four awards on behalf of the newspaper.

For the second year in a row, The Citizen’s website, carrborocitizen.com, was named best in the state for newspapers with a circulation of 3,500 to 10,000. The site was redesigned last year by Michelle Langston, who worked with Citizen staffers Kirk Ross, Mike Li and intern Lucy Butcher to develop a new template for small newspapers using the WordPress open-source platform as part of her graduate work at UNC’s School of Information and Library Science.

In writing awards, managing editor Taylor Sisk won second place in feature writing for a remembrance of civil rights attorney and UNC law professor Dan Pollitt, titled “A lifetime of civility.”

Sisk, Ross and Citizen art director Liz Holm won second place for the design and content of the newspaper’s editorial page.

Ross won third place for editorial writing based on entries about the need to protect vulnerable citizens from the impact of budget cuts and the challenges facing the graduating class of 2010 and an editorial in opposition to siting a waste transfer station on Millhouse Road.

“I’m so pleased that our staff has been recognized for the excellent in-depth journalism we provide for our community, for the really outstanding work that’s been done on our website and for our design in general – both in print and online,” Dickson said. “All of these folks are richly deserving of these awards.”

— Staff Reports