News Prizes Given

WASHINGTON--The American Society of Newspaper Editors has named the recipients of its 1994 Distinguished Writing Awards.

The five were columnists Joan Beck of the Chicago Tribune and Donna Britt of The Washington Post in the commentary-column writing category; Michael Gartner, editor and chairman of The Daily Tribune in Ames, Iowa, for editorial writing; staff writer Anne Hull of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times for non deadline writing; and Ken Wells, senior writer for the Wall Street Journal, for headline writing.

Finalists in the four categories were Daniel Henninger of The Wall Street Journal and Rick Nichols of The Philadelphia Inquirer for editorial writing; Betty DeRamus of the Detroit News and Paul Gigot of The Wall Street Journal for commentary column writing; Rose Jacobius of The Washington Post and Beth Witrogen of the San Francisco Examiner for headlines; and Craig Dezern of The Orlando Sentinel and Hank Stuever of The Albuquerque Tribune for non deadline writing.

The ASNE, with 900 members, is an organization of directing editors in the United States and Canada.