We at The Oakland Press did well at the Society of Professional Journalists Detroit Chapter awards Wednesday night, as Matt Mowery and I took home awards for page design and Mowery for his headline writing. Judges sited the following about his winning headline “Pitt to be Tied.”

"Headline puns are great fun — if they work. These work extremely well. They're clever, match the boldness of the story's action and have great punch."

That headline of course was following the Red Wings' Game 4 loss of the Stanley Cup Finals last season, their second straight loss and a precursor to the remainder of the series.
Attached are front pages, "Dance Partners," for which I was awarded a third-place finish in sports design (I still don't know if that was the submission they chose because they don't go in depth about second- and third-place finshers), and "Much Bigger Upside on Defense," Mowery's winner.
For "Upside," the judges said:

"Good color, b/w contrast on the lead image. The whole spread has a balanced feel."

Lions beat writer Paula Pasche took home first place for feature writing for "Foote Providing Father Figure."
Columnist Pat Caputo, sports editor Jeff Kuehn and Pasche went 1-2-3 in column writing, Caputo winning for "Fans Don't Forget," a critique of the hiring of unpopular former Lions coach Matt Millen as an analyst for the NFL Network.