CLEVELAND—The staff of Rubber & Plastics News took home 10 awards, including four first place honors, in the Press Club of Cleveland's 2021 All Ohio Excellence in Journalism awards event, a virtual ceremony that was held June 24.
Among the awards, RPN took third place among the competition for the Best Trade Publication in Ohio. Sister publication Tire Business, took home second place in the category, with Ignite magazine, published by the Northeast Ohio Medical University, taking first place.
RPN's first place awards included Andrew Schunk winning for best Personality Profile for his story on Tom Pitstick, Gates Corp.'s senior vice president of strategic planning and chief marketing officer, who was the Rubber & Plastics News 2020 Rubber Industry Executive of the Year.
Erin Pustay Beaven took first place for Trends Story for her piece headlined "After joining COVID-19 fight, auto industry is returning to normal." Judges said the story was "clear, easy to follow and really interesting. Just a good read."
Schunk and Pustay Beaven also collaborated to take top honors for Special Section/Package for their coverage on "Trump Takes on Goodyear," when the president tweeted out calling for a boycott of the Akron-based tire maker.
The RPN also took second place in this category for its special section titled "Rapid Responders," detailing the rubber industry's efforts to join in the fight against the global coronavirus pandemic.
The publication's other first place prize went to Art Director Michael McCrady in the Covers for Trade and Professional Publications category. He won for his cover design for "The Book," RPN's year-end collection of data and other interesting items from 2020. McCrady also took third place in this category.
Other awards included:
• Schunk and Hollee Keller, a researcher for sister publication Plastics News, collaborated to take second place in the Trade Report category for a story titled "PPP loans help retain nearly 30,000 rubber-related jobs." Jim Johnson, who reports for both RPN and Tire Business, won a third place award in this category for his Tire Business story on President Trump tweeting about Goodyear.
• Schunk won second place in the General article category for his piece on Goodyear revealing plans to close its factory in Gadsden, Ala.; and
• Bruce Meyer took second place for Departments or Columns for his "Editor's Viewpoint" columns.
The Press Club of Cleveland is an organization of journalists, public relations, corporate communications, marketing and advertising professionals. Its aim is to "promote excellence in journalism, educate future journalists and maintain the rich history of journalism in Cleveland."