November Best of the Month

Congratulations to Nolan Clay, Novembers Best Overall in the newsroom

and the companys Employee of the Month.
News Director Robby Trammell nominated Nolan for his body of work, which
included outstanding Page 1 reporting with clear, concise and accurate
writing on a variety of stories and news issues and topics. But, Nolan also
was praised for his work as a mentor in helping train reporters in covering
the courts and justice system. Nolan is an expert on court reporting and
records, Robby said.
Nolan has worked for The Oklahoman since 1985 and has been the recipient
of more than 100 state, regional and national awards for journalism
excellence. The most notable is the National Society of Professional
Journalists Award for Deadline Reporting given to the newspaper staff for the
coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. He also was part of teams
that won Sweepstakes trophies from The Associated Press/Oklahoma News
Executives for the best news coverage of the year. The latest was for a 2009
series on preventable child deaths called Dying Too Young. He was honored
in 2010 by the Oklahoma Newspaper Foundation with the Beachy Musselman
Award for his contribution to the field of printed journalism. And each year
he wins state and regional awards.
Nolan has never been one to rest on his laurels he continues to be one of
our premier reporters and leaders in the newsroom.

Best Beat or Breaking News

From: Clytie Bunyan
Nominee: Kathryn McNutt
Kathryn spent months on a story about the highest paid at OU and OSU,
doing a thorough job overhauling information from an Open Records request
and digging through to determine how much was paid with taxpayer monies.
The result was a well-read piece, despite the fact that OU provided wrong
data. Her follow=up corrected version was even better.
https://newsok.com/article/5462070
https://newsok.com/article/5462692

Best Feature Story

From: Matt Price
Nominee: Carla Hinton
Nov. 2, The Girl Scouts and the Ghouls
http://www.oklahoman.com/article/5457440?nok_redirect=yes
(438 facebook shares)
Carla made a cute story even better with her well-written piece. The design
for the paper should also be an awards contender.

Best Specialty Feature

From: Matt Price
Nominee: Nathan Poppe
Nov. 27, House Call -- Nathan does a good job in putting the reader in the
places he visits, and this film set visit in Guthrie was no exception.
http://www.oklahoman.com/article/5462862?nok_redirect=yes

Best Business Story or Business Feature

From: Don Mecoy
Nominee: Brianna Bailey
When several Church's Chicken restaurants were closed in Oklahoma City
and Tulsa for failing to pay sales taxes to the state, Brianna broke the story
on NewsOK, and continued to follow the story doggedly as the stores'
operations were taken over by a receiver, as the franchise owner
disappeared and reappeared, and when the stores all finally reopened.
Throughout her coverage, the stories performed well online and, I assume,
among our print readers.
http://newsok.com/article/5458060

Best Sports Story

From: Ryan Sharp
Nominee: Scott Wright
Scott Wright on Geary coach Steven Wilson. Scott had a tremendous month
of November. Can we pair these two stories for consideration for overall
best?
http://newsok.com/article/5459941
Nominee: Scott Wright
Scott Wright on the Cashion/Hollis high school football playoff game. This
story deserves consideration for overall best of the month. It was everything
a game story should be.
http://newsok.com/article/5463313

Best Watchdog Story

From: Robby Trammell
Nominee: Chris Casteel
Play/Centerpiece Report points to drugs in fatal I-35 bus wreck; A federal
transportation panel reports that state authorities found a pipe with synthetic
marijuana residue inside the truck that crashed into a college softball teams
vehicle (11-18-15)
http://archive.newsok.com/olive/apa/oklahoman/SharedView.Article.aspx?
href=DOK%2F2015%2F11%2F12&id=Ar00110&sk=A93D1448

Best Project/Enterprise/In-Depth Story

From: Robby Trammell
Nominee: Andrew Knittle
Play Patient deaths continue to be tied to doctor 2 years after his arrest
(11-8-15)
http://archive.newsok.com/olive/apa/oklahoman/SharedView.Article.aspx?
href=DOK%2F2015%2F11%2F08&id=Ar00109&sk=FE70C7CC

Best Column/First-Person
From: Ryan Sharp
Nominee: Jenni Carlson
Jenni Carlson on OU quarterback Baker Mayfield and his OSU-loyal girlfriend
http://newsok.com/article/5462399

Special Effort to Improve Accuracy

From: Tom Maupin
Nominee: Tom Maupin
Three important catches.
1. History mistake found. A story for Nov. 12 said a man was flying his
Army Air Corps P-38 Lightning fighter. The 23rd combat mission would
be his last. The date was given as Sept. 12, 1944. Tom was slot and
suspected Army Air Corps was not correct for 1944. Various websites
showed the term U.S. Army Air Forces started being used in 1941.
Army Air Corps was used before that year. The writers editor agreed
with Tom that just using P-38 Lightning fighter was sufficient
identification for the airplane.
2. Name mistakes. A headline submitted for Nov. 21 had: Chipoltelinked outbreak of E. coli expands to 6 states. Tom was slot and
changed the name to the correct Chipotle. Also, a Nov. 25 business
story was about SouthWest NanoTechnologies. After the first

paragraph, the company was called Southwest all through the story.
Tom was slot and thought that might confuse readers with Southwest
Airlines, which is always Southwest on second reference. Tom checked
the companys website, it showed SouthWest.
3. Dont convict. A submitted headline for Nov. 26 said: Officers arrest
man planning mass shooting at Copan High. Tom was slot and changed
the headline to: Suspect faces felony charge in Copan school shooting
plot. First off, the charge being filed not the arrest was the latest
news. But the submitted headline convicted the guy. The police
claimed to have an email from the guy saying he planned a shooting.
However, there was not an admission of guilt given by the suspect in
the story.

Best Headline
From: Ryan Sharp
Nominee: Darla Smith
Darla Smith with Slinging in the rain. Headline went over OUs big win over
Baylor in a rainstorm in Waco, Texas, Nov. 15.

Best blog/Social Media

From: Matt Price
Nominee: Brandy McDonnell
http://newsok.com/blogs/bams-blog
Literally hundreds of blog updates, including the American Music Awards,
updates on Carrie Underwood and her new album, and popular posts
featuring Oklahoma entertainers including Broncho and Greyson Chance.

Best Video
From: David Morris
Nominee: Anthony Slater

He teams with Erik Horne on Thunder postgame coverage. He uses iPhone

and the brilliant NewsOK TV app. He shoots standups courtside at home and
on the road. He shoots interviews in locker room with iPhone. Great example
of consistently making video part of the coverage, then re-Tweeting the links
on social media. He also hosts the Thunder Buddies podcast during the
week.
http://bcove.me/2ghl28x7

Best Photo
From: Doug Hoke
Nominee: Nate Billings
Oklahoma's Jordan Thomas (7) scores a touchdown after an interception in
the second quarter during the Bedlam college football game between the
Oklahoma State Cowboys (OSU) and the University of Oklahoma Sooners
(OU) at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, Nov. 28, 2015.
Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman. Great timed photo.

Best Design

From: Todd Pendleton

Nominee: Moran Elwell and Ben Bigler

Special Recognition

From: Don Mecoy

Nominee: The Business Staff
The entire business staff, Adam Wilmoth, Paul Monies, Brianna Bailey,
Steve Lackmeyer, Richard Mize, Paula Burkes and Don Mecoy,
contributed mightily to our annual effort to rank the state's publicly traded

companies. This year's section was chock full of information and profiles of
many of Oklahoma's largest employers and contributors to our local
economy. I thought it was an accessible and data-packed section, particularly
in this year of a slump in the energy sector. A real service for our readers and
advertisers.
http://newsok.com/business/oklahomainc