Houston Chronicle Jesse Awards

A couple of weeks ago, I was honored to be nominated for a Jesse Award, the Houston Chronicle's form of Pulitzer prize, celebrating various journalistic categories.

Being a newspaper, the awards are primarily oriented to the paper. But March 6th, 2008, Chron.com made considerable headway into the psyche of the paper centric newsroom.

The HoustonGardening channel won for Alternative Story Form. This is no small achievement as the nominations are made by the editors of the newsroom. I was also informed that this was the first time in the awards 5 year history that a non news department (me) was included.

The team behind this award winning site; Jenny Montgomery (project lead), Kathy Huber (columnist and plant expert), Laura Haynes Weisman (content producer), and myself as technical lead and developer.

Pictured from left to right:
John St. Germain, Jenny Montgomery, Kathy Huber, Jeff Cohen. Not pictured: Laura Haynes Weisman

Jerry Powers : American Color

We received our awards from Jeff Cohen, Houston Chronicle's Executive V.P. and Editor.

For me, this is validation of 5 years hard work. I certainly take pride every time I browse the site, but to have this level of appreciation; I am honored beyond words.

Now... how to get myself into the right mindset to want this sort of appreciation for my art!?!