The sports department of The Advocate and Times-Picayune was honored for its exemplary work in 2021, named one of the best sports sections in the nation by a coast-to-coast panel of professionals in the annual Associated Press Sports Editors contest.
Among news organizations with the highest circulation in the nation, The Advocate and Times-Picayune earned recognition as one of the top 10 daily sports sections and top 10 Sunday sports sections.
The daily sports section was honored alongside organizations such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Minneapolis Star Tribune, and ahead of The Washington Post and Boston Globe, among others.
The Sunday section was also honored alongside the likes of the Washington Post, Seattle Times and Star Tribune, and ahead of the New York Times and Kansas City Star, among others.
In addition, reporter Andrea Gallo and former LSU beat writer Brooks Kubena won a national Top 10 award in the APSE’s investigative category, thanks to their reporting on Les Miles’ secret settlement with an LSU student who accused him of harassment.
This is the second investigative Top 10 award in the past three years for The Advocate and Times-Picayune. John Simerman also earned a Top 10 award in 2019 for a series that shed light on a growing, unregulated racehorses-for-ransom scheme in Louisiana.
The Advocate and Times-Picayune was the only Class A sports department this year to earn Top 10 status in all three of the following categories: investigative, daily sections and Sunday sections.
Contest results were announced Feb. 23.
This was The Advocate’s third year in “Class A,” the highest division of competition in the APSE contest. The move up was a result of The Advocate’s 2019 acquisition of The Times-Picayune.
Since then, the department has won 13 overall Top 10 awards in APSE digital, writing and section categories.
This year’s haul continues a long string of success for the sports department. Since 2013, The Advocate has earned 44 overall Top 10 awards and nine honorable mentions in the annual APSE contest.