Winners of the 2012 Utah Headliners Awards were announced Thursday night, with City Weekly taking home seven first-place awards and 24 awards overall. ---

Senior reporter Stephen Dark was the winningest City Weekly staffer. He was given seven awards, including three first-place awards, for his investigative work. Writer/blogger Colin Wolf received five awards, including one first-place award. City Weekly also swept the Personality Profile category. The paper competes in Division A of the contest, going up against The Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News. The full results are below.

Headliners is the local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, a nationwide organization dedicated to preserving and promoting excellence in journalism and the free flow of information. The annual awards banquet is a chance for local Utah media outlets—print, radio, broadcast—to come together and realize that we’re all striving for the same noble goals of truth, accuracy and holding people and institutions accountable; and then, as the awards are being read, knock back a bunch of wine (thanks, Tribune!), give each other the side-eye and think, “We’ll get you next year.”

City Weekly Winners

Stephen Dark
First Place, Government Reporting – An Audit They Couldn’t Refuse
First Place, Minority Issues Reporting – Deportation Factory
First Place, Religion/Values Reporting – Last Stand
Second Place, Best Newspaper Reporter
Second Place, Criminal Justice Reporting – Lost in the Hole
Second Place, Personality Profile – Warped Desire
Third Place, Medical/Science Reporting – Toxic Secret in Sandy

Colin Wolf
First Place, Best Multimedia Online – The Secret Handshake
Second Place, Best Overall Blog – The Secret Handshake
Second Place, General Feature – Steal This Bike
Third Place, Best Single Blog Post – The Secret Handshake: The Utah Blaze Had Open Tryouts ... I Didn’t Make the Team
Third Place, Humor/Lifestyle Column – Heavy Metal

Austen Diamond
First Place, Arts & Entertainment – Gospel Gift

Jason Stevenson
First Place, Business/Consumer Reporting – Why Outdoor Retailer May Take a Hike
Honorable Mention, Medical/Science Reporting – The Great Obamacare Scare

Chris Vanocur
First Place, Personality Profile – Mitt, the Mormons & Me

Eric S. Peterson
Second Place, Government Reporting – The Wild Bunch

Ted Scheffler
Second Place, Review/Criticism – Pallet Bistro

Scott Renshaw
Third Place, Review/Criticism – Skyfall

Derek Carlisle
Third Place, Page Design – Losing Faith

Carolyn Campbell
Third Place, Personality Profile – Taking it Off

Jim Catano
Third Place, Opinion Column – Natural Affair

Bill Frost
Honorable Mention, Review/Criticism – Fall TV Preview

Gavin Sheehan
Honorable Mention, Best Single Blog Post – Gavin’s Underground: UCW-Zero

City Weekly Staff
Third Place, Best Newspaper

Photo by Austen Diamond