NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Fox 8 won 15 first place trophies at the Press Club of New Orleans’ 66th annual Excellence in Journalism Awards.

The station received the prestigious “Best Newscast” award for its 5 p.m. broadcast produced by Erin Peytral.

Host and chief investigative reporter Lee Zurik, along with producer Dannah Sauer and photojournalist Jon Turnipseed, won first prizes in several categories.

Their report, “Double Injustice,” won in the category of investigative reporting on television. They also received first prize for general television reporting with “Executive Protector” and for ongoing television reporting with “Tapped Out.”

The competition entries were judged by a panel of professional journalists representing press clubs from California, Florida, Idaho, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.

Fox 8 morning anchor John Snell won first place in environmental science reporting for his segment “Rising Seas Threat.”

Fox 8’s Rob Krieger took first place in the lifestyle reporting category with his “Locally Tuned” profile of up-and-coming Louisiana music artist LeTrainiump.

Dave McNamara won first place in the Feature Reporting category for his “Duck Calls” segment from central Louisiana.

Steve Wolfram, Fox 8 director of photography, won three first-place awards. He was honored in the General News Videography category for his Fox 8 Defenders story with host Meg Gatto, “Sinful Situation: Housing Horrors,” in the Best Video Essay category for “Ramadan” and in the Sports Videography category for “Training David to Beat Goliath.”

Photojournalist Jake Rosenberg took first place in the Breaking News Videography category for his work covering the Marathon Petroleum refinery fire.

Additional first-place awards went to Fox 8 staff for best planned event coverage of the 2023 Endymion Extravaganza, sports reporters Sean Fazende for best digital blog (“After Further Review”) and Garland Gillen for best use of X (“Garland on the Avenue”), and the network’s marketing staff for best network promotion (“Fox 8 Football Friday”).

In addition, Fox 8 journalists received 13 second-place awards: WVUE’s staff for breaking news (“Fatal I-55 Pileup”) and best public affairs coverage (“Weathering the Storm”), the sports staff for best sports special (“LSU Parade of Champions”) and best sports broadcast (“Fox 8 Tailgate Live”), Lee Zurik for investigative reporting (“Outside the Office”) and medical-health reporting (“Permission to Prescribe”), Meg Gatto for state-political reporting (“Sinful Situation: Housing Horrors”), Zack Fradella for best weather report, Dave McNamara for environmental science reporting (“Heart of Louisiana: Atchafalaya Basin Swamp”) and lifestyle reporting (“Heart of Louisiana: Lafitte Artist”), photojournalist Kevin Duckworth for sports videography (“Rolling Blind”), Kristi Coleman and Kevin Duckworth for feature reporting (“Through the Lens of Christopher Horne”) and the marketing staff for “First Alert.”

And Fox 8 staff took third place 13 times: The sports desk for best sportscast, Meg Gatto for general news coverage (“Combatting Carbon”), Lee Zurik for ongoing television coverage (“Starving the Competition”), Rob Krieger for medical-health coverage (“Supplying a High: Losing Feeling”), Garland Gillen for best sports story (“Game Changer”), Rob Masson for environmental science coverage (“Managing the Mississippi”), Liz Reyes for education coverage (“The Mackie Mission”), Dave McNamara for feature videography (“Heart of Louisiana: Chauvin Sculpture Garden”), Hannah Gard for best use of Instagram, Steve Wolfram for best visual storytelling (“Critical Call”) and general news videography (“Waiting on the Bus”), the digital desk for best use of Facebook (“Marathon Petroleum Fire Live Drone”) and best digital special (“Outside the Office”)

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