Chicago Sun-Times journalism wins 17 top honors from Chicago Headline Club

Chicago Sun-Times staff members were recognized Friday with 17 top honors in the Chicago Headline Club’s yearly Peter Lisagor Awards for Exemplary Journalism.

The awards — the most given to any news outlet — cited 16 Sun-Times journalists for excellence in reporting, column writing, criticism, photography and online journalism for work published in 2021.

The Headline Club — an affiliate of the national Society of Professional Journalists — presented the awards, which are named for the onetime Washington bureau chief of the old Chicago Daily News, at a dinner Friday at the Union League Club of Chicago.

The winning Sun-Times entries:

• Jesse Howe, whose interactive illustration “Through the flames,” examining the spread of the Great Chicago Fire and its aftermath, won first-place honors in three categories, for best illustration among all media, best design / digital and best use of digital technology or data visualization.

Jesse Howe ‘Through the flames’

JESSE HOWE’S WINNING WORK

Click here to see the interactive design for which Jesse Howe won three Peter Lisagor Awards for Exemplary Journalism.

• Frank Main with Casey Toner, Jared Rutecki and Forrest Gregg of the Better Government Association, best data journalism among all media for the series “The costly toll of dead-end drug arrests.”

• Robert Herguth, best investigative reporting and also best online series / non-deadline reporting, for stories on Catholic church secrecy regarding child sexual abuses by priests and other clerics from Catholic orders that operate in Chicago and the suburbs.

• Maudlyne Ihejirika, best business or consumer reporting, for the story “Promises made, promises kept.”

• Stefano Esposito, best feature story or series, for the story “After 4 decades apart, ‘true love’ finally triumphs.”

• Lee Bey, best arts reporting and criticism, for the story “The Second City: How the Great Chicago Fire changed Chicago architecture.”

• Patrick Finley, best sports story, for “Back from the brink,” on former Bears quarterback Erik Kramer’s road back after an attempted suicide.

• Rick Morrissey, best sports commentary, for a selection of three columns.

• Ashlee Rezin, best news photo, for “Salutes to a slain cop.”

• Rezin, Pat Nabong and freelance photographer Joe Kline, best online photography, for “The costly toll of dead-end drug arrests.”

• Eric White, best design / print, for a selection of news and feature pages.

• John W. Fountain, best news column, editorial writing or commentary, for a selection of three columns.

• Tim Novak, Lauren FitzPatrick and Caroline Hurley, best online business or consumer reporting, for a series of stories on “Cook County property assessment failures.”

• Evan Moore, best online music coverage, for a story headlined “How churches, community organizations created safe spaces for South Side teenagers via hip-hop.”