The Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists will honor Paul Pringle of the Times, John Schwada of Fox 11, Frank Stoltze of KPCC and Terri Vermeulen Keith of City News Service as the local journalists of the year at a banquet in the spring. AP photographer Nick Ut will receive a lifetime achievement award, and Thomas Newton and Jim Ewert of the California Newspaper Publishers Association will take home the chapter’s Freedom of Information Award. Finally, for the first time they've decided to hand out a Distinguished Work in New Media Award, and they're giving it to me for LA Observed. Thanks!

Speaking of Schwada: He posts a day in the glamorous life of a Los Angeles TV reporter at his Fox 11 blog:

I’m not bellyaching. Or bragging. But being a journalist can be beautifully painful, exasperating and exhilarating - all at once. Sort of like biting a loose tooth. And sometimes the quintessence of it is packed into a few “crowded hours” (Teddy Roosevelt’s phrase). Suddenly life is like a haiku - on caffeine.

The day begins at 9 a.m. and almost ends at 11 p.m. — until the office calls with an assignment to show up at 4 a.m. for live shots in Montecito for the morning show.