Stet NewsFlorida Press Club also honored Stet’s news, election and arts coverage.
Your Stet News captured four first-place awards in the 75th Annual Florida Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards, including best independent website and best newsletter across all circulation categories.
The judges honored Stet’s newsletter, which comes out weekly on Tuesday mornings, for work published in November 2024, January 2025 and March 2025.
To decide the best website, judges called up websites at random points in time. StetNews.org features a home page highlighting recent news stories, the “561 insider” showing stories unique to our area, and The Morgue, which captures the weekly Stet newsletters in their entirety.
But that’s not all.
Stet’s Joel Engelhardt took first place in Class C, the small circulation category, for general news reporting for coverage of a texting campaign that targeted city land for private school, the troubled background of a Palm Beach Gardens City Council candidate, and Fane Lozman’s land dispute with Riviera Beach over an 1858 property marker.
Jane Musgrave took second place in the same general news category for her coverage of the legal drama over control of the G-Star School of the Arts, a story about a sexual abuse civil trial featuring noted developer E. Llwyd Ecclestone Jr. and the campaign issue over a heart ailment affecting Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.
Engelhardt and Musgrave won first place in Class C for best election reporting. Their entry included coverage of Bradshaw’s heart health, text messages from Port of Palm Beach Commissioner Varisa Dass directing a tenant to support her campaign and the Gardens candidate. Engelhardt took second place in government news for his coverage of the port commissioner, the Gardens candidate and the private school property texting campaign.
Stet reporters Erik Kvarnberg, Janis Fontaine and Carolyn DiPaolo won third place in Class B and C for best arts reporting. Their stories covered the Norton Museum’s jewelry exhibition, CreativeMornings monthly gatherings and artist Ben Leone, who created the “Orchid City” sculpture in downtown West Palm Beach. Stet contributor Sharon Geltner won first place for her stories in The Palm Beach Arts Paper.
The news website category, where Stet’s Engelhardt, DiPaolo and Elizabeth Capozzi placed first, is judged on general excellence, including content, design, local emphasis and ease of navigation. The other finalists were Key Biscayne Independent and Talk Media, the parent company of news sites including Coral Springs Talk.
The South Florida Business Journal took second place for best newsletter.
Stet’s Holly Baltz and Musgrave won second place in the competition for one of the Press Club’s highest honors, the Frances DeVore Award for Public Service. Their work with Hannah Phillips and Kristina Webb for The Palm Beach Post focused on the Jeffrey Epstein case. The Miami Herald won first place.
Friend of Stet, Joe Capozzi, took first place in Class C for Serious Features for three stories including his profile of “Caddyshack” actress Cindy Morgan, who died alone in Lake Worth Beach, and in Light Features for a package that included his story on the 100th anniversary of the Lake Worth Playhouse.
Baltz took first place for Serious Feature reporting in the large circulation category for her story about a woman who survived an attack by Boynton Beach serial killer Christopher Wilder.
The winners were announced Saturday at the Press Club annual dinner in West Palm Beach.
Last year, Stet News took home first place for best newsletter, and Engelhardt won first place for community news coverage.
