Excellence in Written News/Feature

Newsweek Magazine, and a team led by John Leland, was honored for their groundbreaking April special issue called “Gay Today,” for its breadth and depth of this series, which contained page after page of profiles of average gay Americans. The issue represented a landmark in mainstream coverage of gay issues.

Second place went to Peter Cassels of Bay Windows in Boston for his story on Corey Johnson, a now-famous gay high school student who is also captain of his football team. The story was told so far and wide after Cassels reported it – from the NY Times to 20/20 – that one judge had to remind another that Cassels had the story earlier.

Third place went to Fred Contrada, a reporter at the Union-News/Sunday Republican in Springfield, MA for “Raid cast light on secret lives.”