Community Journalist of the Year

The Community Journalist of the Year award goes to the journalist who, in the opinion of the judge, best embodies the skills and duties of a community journalist.

Judge: Willy Stern is an investigative reporter for the Nashville Scene. He has been a staff writer at both Forbes and Newsweek.

2002's contest had 10 entries.

Community Journalist of the Year

Jim Nintzel

Tucson Weekly

Tucson Weekly senior writer Jim Nintzel, 37, has covered politics, paranormal activity and general mania for more than decade.

  Underneath Nintzel’s alt-weekly sarcasm, judge Willy Sterns said, hides “the best traits of a true community journalist: sensitivity to his subjects and to his surroundings melded with a wonderfully engaging writing style.” Stern also praised Nintzel as “a subtle writer with a sharp eye for his subjects.”

  In addition to the hair-raising excitement of working as a courier for the advertising department, Nintzel has been Tucson Weekly’s calendar editor, staff writer, senior editor and managing editor. He was instrumental in developing the paper’s news section, including the creation of The Skinny, the paper’s notorious political gossip column.

  A 1989 graduate of the University of Arizona’s creative writing program,

Nintzel teaches the black arts at the UA journalism department and appears weekly on the Reporters’ Roundtable segment on KUAT-TV’s Arizona Illustrated. He has also written for American Heritage magazine, High Country News and the New Times online edition. A very good speller, Nintzel has won 16 previous Arizona Press Club

awards and served on the club’s board of directors from 1996 to 1999. He lives in midtown Tucson with his fiancée, Jennifer Hard, and their dog, Cricket.

First runner-up

Patrick Cavanaugh

Northwest Explorer

Patrick Cavanaugh, 41, He joined the Northwest EXPLORER in 1999 and serves as the paper’s assistant editor. He covers governmental affairs and education, writes features and conducts investigations for the communities northwest of Tucson. He was the Arizona Press Club’s Community Journalist of the Year in 1999.

  Judge Willy Stern called Cavanaugh “part investigative reporter and part beat reporter,” saying the choice between first and second place was a tough one. “Cavanaugh’s writings are testimony to his work as an accomplished community journalist,” Stern said. “His portfolio demonstrates a remarkable understanding of the rhythms and nuances of his complex locale.”

  Cavanaugh is a native Tucsonan who attended journalism school at the University of Arizona.

Second runner-up

Teresa McQuerrey

Payson Roundup

Teresa McQuerrey, 47, has been a staff reporter for the Payson Roundup since May 2002. She covers town government, law enforcement and courts, plus writes occasional feature stories and a weekly recipe column. In her spare time, she fills in as the paper’s editor.

McQuerrey “clearly has community journalism running in her blood,” judge Willy Stern says. “Her splendid choices for the subject matter of her pieces and her passion for her work clearly indicate that she is a first-rate community journalist.”

  McQuerrey was born in Cushing, Oklahoma and came to Ganado, on the Navajo Reservation, in 1965. While her parents taught school in the very isolated community, McQuerrey spent her first summer in Arizona reading all the books in the library she liked — then writing sequels to each one as she dreamed of being a “real writer.”

  After attending Northern Arizona University on an academic scholarship, McQuerrey started her career as a general assignment and feature writer — and, eventually, lifestyle editor — at the Newport News Times and Lincoln County Leader in Newport, Ore. She returned to Arizona in 1980 and since then has since worked at the Mogollon Advisor, Navajo-Hopi Observer, Camp Verde Journal and Payson Roundup.