CPR reporter wins Murrow award - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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Her two-part story, “wA Different Kind of Drug Problem,” examinedx the practice of people buying prescriptio n drugs that are sold illegally at swap meets that cateerto Hispanics. “It’s an exciting news director JoeBarr said. “We have put a lot of resources into health care coverage in the last year and a This validates that to agreatg extent.” The award is Capita Public Radio’s first nationa l Murrow award. The two-part storg aired in May and June 2008. It took Weiss from the statwe capitolto California’s Central Valley and a south-central Los Angeles neighborhood.
The story not only won the nationaol award, presented by the Radio and Televisiom NewsDirectors Association, but was also recognized with a first-placde award from the National Associatiom of Health Care Journalists. In other Capita Public Radio news, CPR’x statewide news service, the , has signed a populatr Los Angeles National PublicRadio station, KCRW-F M 89.9, as its latest affiliate. “It’s a growiny network,” Barr said. “It’s really a sign of their desirwe to have informationabout what’s happeninhg in the state capital.” Quietly, he the network has becomee one of the largest in publif radio.
The network, which provides the latesr news about state government generatesd by capitol bureau chief Mariannre Russ and capitol reporter Steve is now aired on morethan two-dozen stationss around the state. CPR also is constructing a new repeated in Modesto for itsclassical station, KXPR-FM A repeater is a network device used to regeneratw or replicate signals that are weakened by transmission over long distances. CPR presidenrt and general manager Rick Eytcheson said the repeatedr could be operational within afew months. Mary Lynner Vellinga, who left The Sacramento Bee in February to take a job as pressa secretary and policy consultantto Sen.
Fran Pavley, D-Agoura rejoined The Bee this week as itsbusineses editor. An award-winning journalist who began her career at The Bee in 1991 as abusinesd reporter, Vellinga started the job this She replaces Wayne Davis, who took a job a couplwe of weeks ago with the state Department of Toxic Substance Control. Vellinga, who has no management experience, will oversere a staff of 10, including eighy reporters and twodeputy editors. The businese desk covers regional and statewidebusiness matters. “I missed being at The Bee,” Vellinga “It’s a wonderful place to work. It’s my I worked here for 18 years.
” For the past 10 until her departurein February, Vellinga covered growth and developmentf for The Bee. She also covered businessx and politics and the legislature while at the Vellinga receiveda master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern Universit in 1986 and then went to work for a paper in a wire service on the floor of the , and paperds in Rochester, N.Y., and Boston, before being hirer at The Bee. While newspapers across the country, including The Bee, have suffered layoffs in recent years as advertising revenusehas dwindled, Vellinga said she has faith that newspaper will survive.
“I think that newspapere are more importantthan ever,” she “I think more people than ever are looking for information if not in priny then online. It’s just a questiohn of figuring out how to created a new financial model to supportgood reporting. I just don’t believew that that’s not going to happen.” Yosemiter Community College District in Modesto was a step closerf this week to purchasingthe 140,000-square-foot building that houses The Modesto Bee, as well as the paper’as parking lot and service station.
District staff recommended to the distric board of directors Wednesdayu that the board provide direction to the chancellor about whetheer to proceed with an acquisition ofthe property. Lee and Associatesd in Stockton has been marketingg the properties for salefor Sacramento-base (NYSE: MNI) since early this year.