click to enlarge CP photo: Jared Wickerham
Pittsburgh City Paper writer Jordan Snowden
Pittsburgh City Paper is proud to announce that two of its staff members, music writer Jordan Snowden and columnist Tereneh Idia, are winners in the
Pittsburgh Black Media Federation's 32nd annual Robert L. Vann Media Awards contest.
Both writers won in the Excellence in Written Journalism: Non-Daily Newspaper/News Service category. Snowden was recognized for her Dec. 2019 story
“INEZ releases her debut album, an audio diary of her growth as a woman” and Idia for
“Pittsburgh: The Worst Place to Be You” and
other entries in her Voices column.
This is
the latest award earned by Idia, who earlier this year won a Golden Quill for Excellence in Written Journalism, Daily for Columns/Blogs by the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania, and was named Best Column (aka Billy Manes Award) by the 2020
Association of Alternative Newsmedia Awards.
click to enlarge CP photo: Amanda Waltz
Pittsburgh City Paper columnist Tereneh Idia holding her 2020 Golden Quill and AAN Award
Snowden and Idia were both nominated for
Golden Quill awards in 2019.
A press release describes the Robert L. Vann Media Awards as honoring “excellence in journalism coverage of African American and African diaspora communities, individuals, and issues.”
“As the pandemic unfolds, disproportionately impacting Black lives, and as the nation grapples with racial inequality, the commitment to journalism that covers the Black community is more important than ever,” reads the PBMF press release.
Founded in 1973, PBMF is a nonprofit organization consisting of Black professional journalists, public relations specialists, and journalism professors and college students. The journalism awards competition was launched by PBMF in 1988 to honor Robert L. Vann, the
Pittsburgh Courier publisher committed to journalism and creating a voice for the Black community.
Entries were published or broadcast between Jan. 1, 2019, and Dec. 31, 2019, and came from traditional newspapers or digital media news organizations publishing new written content four or fewer times a week. Other winners include reporters representing
New Pittsburgh Courier,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PublicSource, WESA, and others.
Besides Snowden and Idia, several current and former
CP interns also received awards in the 2020 Student Contest, including Ollie Gratzinger for their column “Inside Story: Tales of American Incarceration” for the Duquesne University student publication
The Duquesne Duke, and Jared Murphy, and Nardos Haile, who were both recognized for their work on
The Globe at Point Park University.