Scott Maxwell, Orlando Sentinel staffers earn awards from Florida Society of News Editors

Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell received the Paul Hansell Award for distinguished achievement as the Florida Society of News Editors presented its annual awards for Sunshine State journalism on Thursday in Sarasota.

Maxwell and South Florida Sun Sentinel journalist Scott Travis were co-recipients of the Hansell award, FSNE’s top individual honor, for their work in 2022.

Maxwell was cited for a series of opinion columns exposing the hypocrisy of a feud between Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Walt Disney Co. He wrote about how Disney bankrolled campaigns of Florida lawmakers who filed anti-gay legislation while the company publicly touted its commitment to equality, and how the DeSantis administration was doing behind-the-scenes favors for Disney when the governor’s campaign was still getting company contributions.

Travis, a senior reporter at the Sun Sentinel, was honored for his extensive reporting on the Broward County School Board.

In other FSNE awards, the Orlando Sentinel took both second- and third-place honors in two categories, Community Leadership and Video.

In Community Leadership, Desiree Stennett and Martin E. Comas finished second for a series of stories about 10 years after Trayvon Martin’s death while Matthew J. Palm, Skyler Swisher and Roger Simmons were third for stories about the Orlando Museum of Art’s Basquiat scandal.

In Video, Richard Pope earned second place for a feature on basketball player Justin Williams, and Pope and Mike Bianchi took third for a feature on Orlando Magic player Paolo Banchero’s draft night attire.

Other second-place citations were in Breaking News for the Sentinel’s coverage of Hurricane Ian and for former staffer Katie Rice for her Business reporting.

Other third-place awards were given to Rice, Dewayne Bevil and Wesley Alden in Multimedia, Maxwell in Columns, Patrick Connolly in Features Writing, and Jason Beede, Matt Murschel and Edgar Thompson in Sports.

The FSNE awards are open to newspapers across the state. This year’s contest had 546 entries from 57 newspapers, which was up from last year. The newspapers compete in different divisions based on their circulation, with the Sentinel going up against the largest newspapers in the state.

The Sun Sentinel won FSNE’s top award, the Gold Medal, in the large newspaper division for its series of stories called “Innocence Sold,” about sex trafficking in Florida.