1st Place: Julian Emerson
2nd Place: Tom Giffey
3rd Place: Eric Lindquist

When it comes to local, hard-hitting investigative reporting, city council round-ups, and those everyday front-page news stories, it doesn’t get any better than the Leader-Telegram’s Julian Emerson. Julian has been around for about five years now, cranking out the news we all need to know, so you’d be hard-pressed to find someone that knows every nook and cranny of the community like he does. Well, maybe you could look a few cubicles down to your second-place selection, Tom Giffey. Giffey mostly handles the political scene as editor of the Leader-Telegram’s opinion page and the always ingenius blog “Giff’s Riffs.” Your third choice for delicious written word is the L-T’s special projects editor, Eric Lindquist. A UWEC journalism graduate, Lindquist is currently an investigative wizard delivering in-depth gems, but that was only after he mastered items such as sports, business, and homes. – Trevor Kupfer