The Associated Press Sports Editors bestowed two national honors on the sports coverage of Picket Fence Media’s San Clemente Times in their 2023 sports journalism awards last week.
Sports editor Zach Cavanagh earned a Top 10 spot in Breaking News for his coverage of the overhauled high school football leagues being approved in Orange County. Picket Fence Media competes in Division D of the APSE awards, which holds weekly newspapers like the San Clemente Times along with daily newspapers with circulation of less than 10,000 and standalone websites of less than 250,000 unique monthly visitors.
The San Clemente Times’ 2023 Triton Football Preview, with photos and stories from Cavanagh and SC Times city reporter C. Jayden Smith, also earned one of three honorable mentions in its Special Section category, which named only a Top 5 from the combined submissions of Divisions C and D. Division C includes daily newspapers with circulation between 10,000-25,000 and standalone websites between 250,000-750,000 unique monthly visitors.
The Associated Press Sports Editors describes itself as “a national organization that strives to improve professional standards for sports departments of professional news organizations and to recognize professional excellence among its membership.”