John Pacenti won the Journalist of the Year competition in the 2026 Sunshine State Awards sponsored by the Florida-based Society for Professional Journalism, including for work he did for The Coastal Star.
The award, presented Aug. 29 in Fort Lauderdale, was for 2025 stories done while Pacenti was covering Delray Beach, Ocean Ridge and Manalapan for The Coastal Star. He left the paper in May to join the USA Today Network-Florida; his work now appears in The Palm Beach Post.
The award also covered work he did for the Key Biscayne Independent and for South Florida Business & Wealth.
His entry included Coastal Star stories about beach erosion, state threats to home rule, social media use in local politics, Delray Beach’s fight with the state over its Pride intersection, and a whistleblower complaint concerning Delray Beach code enforcement.
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