Variety Picks Up 8 First-Place Wins at L.A. Press Club’s SoCal Journalism Awards, Including Entertainment Journalist of the Year for Brent Lang

Variety won eight first-place awards Sunday night at the Los Angeles Press Club’s 66th annual SoCal Journalism Awards, including a top win for executive editor Brent Lang as entertainment journalist of the year.

Variety came into the 2024 ceremony with 74 nominations, representing work published by staffers online or in the weekly print edition during the 2023 calendar year.

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Lang led the list of staff wins by picking up won three awards in all. Besides his entertainment journalist of the year trophy, Lang also won for personality profile/magazines for his cover story on Michael J. Fox, and he shared the award for entertainment feature/TV with Tatiana Siegel and Matt Donnelly for their story “Showstopper! Strikes Plunge Hollywood Into Chaos With Pricey Movie Delays, Pay Battles and AI Anxiety.”

Siegel was a double-winner. Besides sharing the latter award with Lang, she also won in the category of entertainment news/magazines for the story “A Fired ‘Scream Star, Clients Booted From Agencies and a Secret Tom Cruise Meeting: Inside Hollywood’s Divide Over Israel.”

Winning two as well was Brian Steinberg, who came in first for commentary/analysis of TV for “David Zaslav Likes to Gut Cable Networks — CNN Isn’t Easily Remodeled,” and also personality profile/TV personalities for his story “Streaming News Threw Kasie Hunt Some Curves — Now She’s Straightening Them Out.”

Selome Hailu won personality profile/film personalities for the article “Lily Gladstone on Welcoming ‘Flower Moon’ Criticism, Mollie’s Agency and Scorsese’s Limitations While Telling an Osage Story.”

Chris Willman picked up the award for entertainment commentary/arts for his opinion piece “Jason Aldean Already Had the Most Contemptible Country Song of the Decade — The Video Is Worse.”

Variety was also well-represented with second- and third-place honors being announced for Jem Aswad, Daniel D’Addario, Clayton Davis, Peter Debruge, Jennifer Dorn, Sharareh Drury, Zoe Hewitt, Angelique Jackson, Haley Kluge, Zohar Lazar, Emily Longeretta, Alexi Lumbomiski, Mary Ellen Matthews, Jenelle Riley, Rebecca Rubin, Michael Schneider, Ellise Shafer, Katcy Stephan, Victoria Stevens, Jazz Tangcay, Aramide Tinubu and Adam B. Vary.

The 2024 awards were handed out during a gala dinner attended by more than 500 journalists and guests in the historic Crystal Ballroom at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

A full list of the SoCal Journalism Awards’ first-, second- and third-place finishers along with the judges’ comments can be found here. The L.A. Press Club said before the ceremony started that a record 2,300 entries came in from L.A.-based publications and journalists this year.

Apart from the night’s competitive awards, six esteemed journalists or public figures were honored with honorary or lifetime achievement awards throughout the 66th annual gala, including actress Jane Seymour (presented by Kevin Ryan), Amanda Salas of Fox 11 (presented by Jerry O’Connell), Stephen A. Smith of ESPN, Mickey H. Osterreicher of the National Press Photographers Association (presented by Adam Rose), and Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal (presented by Judea Pearl). Gershkovich was presented his award in absentia, as he remains in the custody of the Russian government, which has charged him with spying.

The 2024 SoCal Journalism Awards were presented “in loving memory” of two beloved local journalists who died this year. Ruth Ashton Taylor’s career went back to the 1940s, before she made history as the first female newscaster on the west coast. She died in January at age 101.  Sam Rubin, the weekday entertainment anchor on KTLA’s Morning News, died May 10 at age 64.

The SoCal Journalism Awards are one of two awards shows presented by the Los Angeles Press Club each year. The other, the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards, honoring work from across the U.S., will next take place at the Biltmore on Dec. 1, 2024.

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