Here's some good news!

I just got some really excellent news from the "Best of the West" contest, which honors newspaper folks at print and newspaper-run Web sites in the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming

I entered the blog writing category and came in third!

I posted the text below from the contest results.

Congrats to Sean Means in Salt Lake and the staff at the OC Weekly, including Matt Coker, who will always be one of my favorite editors and writers. (We sat next to each other 20 years ago at the paper in Ontario.)

BLOG WRITING

First Place: Culture Vulture blog, by Sean P. Means, Salt Lake Tribune.

All five of Means' entries were top-of-the-line good -- funny, informative, well-written, timely and made excellent use of the tools available online. For example, American Idol tryouts come around to a half-dozen or so big cities every year. After a while, how can you write the same story, or cover the same hopefuls? Easy, if you blog at the Culture Vulture. The American Idol entry was a great way to click through quickly, stop on the ones that interested you or skip the ones that didn't.

The same could be said for his blog entry on the Outdoor Retailers. Capturing "snapshots of the strangeness" was smart -- it didn't make fun of the outdoor lovers but it did point out some of the more offbeat stuff you can find.

The other three entries -- the political party involving the McCain drinking game, the sock monkey and Dan Savage stands me up -- also were strong. Not a weak link among the five, and I have bookmarked this blog as one I plan to watch.

Second Place: "Naval Gazing," by the staff of the Orange County Weekly.

Wow, this is very topical, very off the news, but a fun, irreverent yet still honest and sound way to report.

The take on the Rick Warren as inauguration prayer-man controversy was solid reporting presented in a different context.

The entry about the diocese photoshopping out an abusive priest was also strong -- of course, having the photos in there MADE the entry -- and was a good piece of reporting, too. My only question: Was this a beat by the blog, or was it following something else? Either way, it was a very strong entry.

The segregated Halloween trick-or-treating was a great piece of reporting, although a photo or short video clip would also have been sweet.

Possibly the strongest blog entry was the corrupt sheriff's trial and his whole courtroom persona. Great scene-setting, great description, great background--and obviously this is stuff that is NOT going to make it in the print edition. This is the best of a blog -- cutting edge, timely, topical, and based on good solid reporting.

Third Place: Crime Blog, by Larry Altman, (Torrance, Calif.) Daily Breeze.

Crime blogs can easily get sucked into being nothing but a cops blotter, but this blog does a little of that and much more.

When the reporter blogs about accidentally helping wrap up a cold case, I'm more riveted than if I'd sat down to watch an hourlong episode on CBS. This had everything --plot, good police work, bad police work, luck -- and Altman wrapped it into a nicely told tale of a fatal hit-and-run that gets solved. The blog mentions that his print story ran, all was fine, but it's the blog that tells the story. Very very well done.

Altman's farewell to a good cop shop PIO was also a nice touch -- personalizing a name/face that readers might not otherwise come to know.

All of Altman's entries struck that just right tone -- they had immediacy, they were newsy and they will strike a chord with readers.

Judged by Amanda St. Amand, continuous news editor, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 36 entries.

Complete list of winners.