ST. PETERSBURG, FL (March 5, 2010) – Shawn Montano of KDVR-TV and KWGN-TV in Denver has been named Video Editor of the Year today by judges at NPPA's 2010 Best Of Photojournalism Television contest the competition's host site, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg.
Matthew Apthorp of WBBH-TV in Ft. Myers, FL, is the runner-up Video Editor of the Year.
This is the third time Montano has won the Video Editor of the Year title from NPPA. He won the honor in before in 2008 and 2001. During his career he's also won Emmy Awards, a regional Edward R. Murrow Award, Colorado Broadcasters Association honors, and numerous NPPA national editing awards.
"This year's been a true challenge in a time of less staff and more newscasts," Montano said. "At KWGN/KDVR we have several newscasts to cut video to run on two station's newscasts. Finding time to be creative was a challenge in itself. And yet this year I did more stories I was proud of than any other year in the history of my career."
"I have two work passions in life, video editing and teaching. I'm very lucky to spend my time doing either one." His full-time job is working at KWGN/KDVR in Denver, and his part time job is as an adjunct professor at Front Range Community College teaching Video Editing and Videography.
Today judges also picked the Ernie Crisp Television News Photographer of the Year. The 2010 winner is Darren Durlach of WBFF-TV in Baltimore. It's the second year in a row Durlach has won the top shooting title.
Earlier this week judges picked KARE-TV of Minneapolis as the Large Market Station of the Year, WAVY-TV of Portsmouth, VA, as the Medium Market Station of the Year, and KTUU-TV of Anchorage as the Small Market Station of the Year.
At 3 p.m. EST on Friday, Best Of Photojournalism judges joined Poynter's Al Tompkins in a live online chat to discuss the contest and the top winners. The panel talked about trends they've seen in the work and what they learned from the entries.
NPPA's 2010 Best of Photojournalism competition is sponsored this year by The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, ibiblio, Camera Bits, Ohio University, and the St. Petersburg Times.
Read about winners in BOP's television photography and editing categories
