The Beverly Hills Courier has earned a total of 13 California Journalism Awards—five first place, three second place, one third place, three fourth place and one fifth place—from the California News Publishers Association (CNPA). The awards were announced by Chris Schauble, co-anchor of the KTLA 5 Morning News, at a May 17 ceremony at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City.
The CNPA is the state’s preeminent news publishers association, representing more than 700 newspapers, digital news outlets and campus organizations. This year, judges considered more than 2,300 entries for the awards, with eligible stories published in the calendar year 2024.
Courier Publisher Lisa Friedman Bloch earned a first-place award in the category of “Sports Feature Story” for her Holiday STYLE cover profile, “Candace Parker Powering Forward,” and second place in the same category for her Summer STYLE cover story, “Jay Leno and Bruce Meyer How they Became the Kings of Cars.”
The Courier’s COO/Executive Editor Ana Figueroa garnered a first-place award in the category of “Writing” and a second place in the category of “Food Writing/Reporting” for her Autumn 2024 Wine + Dine cover profile, “The Paradox of Evan Funke.” The piece also earned a fourth-place showing in the category of “Profile Story.” Figueroa’s news story, “Teacher Files Wrongful Termination Claim Against BHUSD” earned a fourth-place slot in the category of “Coverage of Youth and Education.”
Arts and Entertainment writer Neely Swanson made a clean sweep in the “Film and TV Writing/Reporting” category. She took home first, second and third place for her reviews of “Seed of the Sacred Fig,” “Stay with Us” and “The Taste of Things,” respectively.
Clara Harter, the Courier’s former staff writer (now with the Los Angeles Times) earned first- place awards in the category of “Breaking News” for her story, “Local Pro-Palestinian Protests Elicit Strong Response,” and another first place award in the category of “Housing and Land-Use Reporting” for “One Beverly Hills Breaks Ground.” She earned fourth place in that same category for “State to Approve the Beverly Hills Housing Element.”
The efforts of the entire Courier staff were awarded a fifth-place win for Summer STYLE in the category of “Print Special Section.”
