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April 16, 2007
Mike Lester Takes SDX
The Society of Professional Journalists named Mike Lester winner of its Sigma Delta Chi Award for excellence in Editorial Cartooning for 2007.
The judges said of Lester's winning entry: "We felt Mike Lester's editorial cartoons for the Rome News-Tribune showed a unique, breezy and consistent style. Each panel was strong and wry while commenting on important social issues. There is humor but it is not disrespectful. The cartoons have broad appeal. We applaud Rome News-Tribune, a small newspaper, for having a fulltime editorial cartoonist on staff."
Lester's editorial cartoons appear in the Rome News-Tribune, and he is syndicated by Cagle Cartoons.
Lester later told Daryl Cagle: "I'm flattered and have a feeling of validation to have won, but my suspicion is that the awards committee probably just misspelled 'Luckovich'."
Lester says this particular award is special. "While I am very honored to get NNA, NCS and GPA awards, this is — outside of most improved conduct in the sixth grade — my greatest achievement," Lester said this morning.
In the past three years, Lester has won two first-place and a second-place award for best original editorial cartoon from the National Newspaper Association. He has also won several Georgia Press Association awards.
Lester has been the editorial cartoonist for the Rome News-Tribune since 2002. His prior newspaper credentials include five years with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
For more than 20 years, Lester has created images and illustrations for advertising campaigns of major corporations as well as illustrating for national magazines and children's books.
The Sigma Delta Chi Awards date back to 1932, when the Society first honored six individuals for contributions to journalism. The current program began in 1939, when the organization awarded the first Distinguished Service Awards. These awards later became the Sigma Delta Chi Awards.
The awards, which recognize work published in 2006, will be presented July 20 during the annual Sigma Delta Chi Awards banquet at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Sources: Rome News-Tribune, SPJ, www.cagle.com. J.P. Trostle contributed to this article.