The Cincinnati SPJ chapter hosted its 2003 "Awards for Excellence" banquet Friday, June 27 at the Millennium Hotel downtown, with retired federal judge Nathaniel Jones as the keynote speaker. Three new members of the Cincinnati Journalism Hall of Fame were also honored: James Gillespie Birney, who published an anti-slavery newspaper in Cincinnati in the 1830s; Emil Dansker, Cincinnati Enquirer reporter and longtime journalism teacher; and beloved Cincinnati Post photographer Melvin Grier.

Awards were given out in 40 print, radio and web categories, with Enquirer reporters Debra Jasper and Spencer Hunt winning the chapter's biggest award, the Gerald White Memorial Prize, for their investigative work, "Ohio's Secret Shame." Overall, The Enquirer won the most awards (39), followed by The Cincinnati Post (17), Dayton Daily News (17), CityBeat (15), Cincinnati Business Courier (15), WNKU-FM (6), Cincinnati Magazine (4), Xavier University (4), WLW-AM (3), Dayton Business Journal (3), The Hamilton Journal-News (3), St. Anthony Messenger (3), Cincinnati People Magazine (2) and the Community Press (1).