I was humbled and honored to place second in the George W. Cornell Religion Writer of the Year Award, an international contest for religion journalists.
I picked up the award Saturday night in D.C. and an announcement was published today in The Blade. You can read it here.
You don't write articles in order to enter contests, but obviously it is nice to be recognized for your work.
When the winners were being announced and I was a finalist, a colleague asked me if I had a speech prepared. That inspired me to make a little inside joke when I was at the podium.
First, a little background: Michael Gerson, the renowned Washington Post columnist and longtime G.W. Bush speechwriter, was one of the speakers at the Religion Newswriters Association's conference. So when I went up to the microphone, I said: "I tried to get Michael Gerson to write my acceptance speech, but he managed to slip out of the ballroom before I could corner him."
It worked that night, but I don't know if it's funny outside the RNA conference.
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One of the big topics at the conference, both officially and unofficially was online journalism and blogging. We are on the cusp of a new era as technology reshapes the distribution of news and information. But nobody knows exactly how it's going to shake out and how to shift gears. It's kind of like trying to change the momentum of a supertanker.
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Toledo, Ohio
Sept. 23, 2008