The Orlando Sentinel’s Scott Maxwell has won the general column writing award from the Society of Professional Journalists for 2025, recognizing his stature as one of the nation’s top local columnists.
Read more For new Holocaust Center CEO, a Florida homecoming and a museum to open
Judges for the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi award noted Maxwell’s “great voice and range,” calling him “an essential asset for the paper, serving readers and the community at large.”
Maxwell, who has been a columnist for Sentinel since 2002, mixes humor, outrage, and empathy in the three columns he writes most weeks, while regularly offering deep affection for his Central Florida home.
The Sentinel’s entry on Maxwell’s behalf included columns on Florida’s clandestine paintover of the rainbow crosswalk near the Pulse memorial (GOP leaders, he said, “are so hellbent on trying to stick it to LGBTQ people, they’re willing to endanger pedestrians”), his 150th birthday wishes for Orlando (“The word has Italian roots,” Maxwell wrote of the city’s name. “It means, ‘Good lord, it’s humid here’.”), and an examination of the area’s low-wage economy.
Read more Tropical Storm Bertha strengthens as it nears Gulf Coast, NHC says
In the latter column, Maxwell determined that Orlando’s wage rate had risen from 50th out of the country’s 50 largest metro areas, where it had sat for many years — to 49th. “No matter how you try to spit shine it, if you build an economy around low-paying jobs, you’re going to have a community full of people who struggle,” he wrote.
SPJ chose 73 winners in various categories from more than 1,000 entries. The organization handed out two general columnist awards, with Maxwell winning the category for smaller circulation news organizations.
“It’s wonderful to have people outside Central Florida realize what a treasure we have in Scott Maxwell,” Executive Editor Roger Simmons. “He’s someone who deeply cares about our area and his columns show that all the time.”
Read more Police seek people responsible for break-in at Eagles’ running back Saquon Barkley’s home