Winner: The New York Times, Portfolio C (Roland Miller, Jim Norman, Marlene Bagley, Charles Klaveness, Andy Das, Ron Wertheimer, Greg Cowles, Ken Plutnicki, Kevin Granville, Karron Skog)

Judges: Bill Cloud (chairman), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Rich Holden, Dow Jones Newspaper Fund; Vince Rinehart, The Washington Post; Scott Rohrer, National Journal (Washington, D.C.)

Judges’ comments:

• What headline writer wouldn’t salivate over getting a review about a restaurant in the Penthouse Executive Club? Plutnicki didn’t disappoint with ‘Where Only The Salad Is Properly Dressed.’ ‘Tennis Nonwhites’ proves the point that some of the best headlines are also some of the shortest. Every headline in the entry showed creativity and proper tone while avoiding obvious wordplay.

Award of Excellence: Los Angeles Times, Portfolio A (Steve Devol, Tim Lynch, Judy LaVally, Rachel Dunn, Dave Bowman, Duane Rogers, Jennifer Karmon)

Judges’ comments:

• The wordplay was inventive both for its own stake and in telling the story; it was always appropriate in tone. The entries revealed creativity on a variety of stories; there were news stories among the pure features. The counts were also varied. The Times is really strong at one-column creativity; one I especially liked was about the wooing of Fred Thompson: ‘Cast as a/leader, but/what’s his/motivation?’