Digital Extra: The Station Fire

01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, April 18, 2004

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- The Providence Journal's coverage of the Station nightclub fire earned the newspaper the Sevellon Brown Award for public service, an award given by the New England Associated Press News Executives Association.

"The judges were impressed with the scope and depth of the Providence Journal's coverage in the aftermath of one of the worst tragedies in Rhode Island history," said Ed Bell, the Associated Press bureau chief for Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. "The Journal provided vital information to the community in its time of enormous need."

The award will be presented at NEAPNEA's May 11 spring conference in Providence.

"In using the full resources of the newspaper to tell an important and difficult story in breadth and depth with persistence and sensitivity, The Providence Journal has illustrated the value of public service newspapering," the judges said.

The Brown award is named for the late editor and publisher of the Journal-Bulletin.

"The staff of the Journal and I are grateful for the recognition," said Joel P. Rawson, executive editor of the newspaper. "The families and people touched by this tragedy, and all of our readers, deserved the very best we could do. They can be assured it was the best I've seen this newspaper do in my 30 years here."

The Journal's fire coverage also was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the public-service category.

NEAPNEA also awarded The Enterprise, of Brockton, Mass., the Thomas K. Brindley Award for public service, for newspapers under 40,000 circulation, for "Roll Call," a three-part series on police staffing in the city.

The judges awarded The Cape Cod Times an honorable mention in the Brown competition for highlighting the laxity with which Massachusetts enforced its version of Megan's Law.