We reorganized the newsroom earlier this year, to more sensibly put groups of reporters with similar duties together, and our life and culture editor got all over me because of one of the changes.

He no longer would be working with travel writer and editor Susan Glaser. He tried every argument he could think of to stop the change.

Susan has that affect on editors. She’s a joy to work with, a reporter who comes up with a dazzling array of interesting stories and writes them with polish. Her new editor, Rich Exner, has told me repeatedly he wishes he could clone her.

We’ve long known what a gem we have in Susan, and I suspect our readers have known it, too. What I don’t think people realize, however, is just how special she is.

We learned Tuesday that The Plain Dealer -- and Susan -- won the gold award for newspaper travel coverage from the Society of American Travel Writers.

The New York Times got silver.

The Boston Globe got bronze.

Think about that. Susan is a one-person operation. She singlehandedly does the reporting, writing and planning of our Sunday Travel section, with our talented design team giving it visual pop. And she beat out huge institutions with teams of people doing what she does alone.

This is what the judges had to say:

“While the Plain Dealer doesn’t go as far afield and perhaps doesn’t have the resources as the national metros, this section catered with laser focus on its readers. The stories were about Ohio and any reader could experience them within a day’s drive. The writing style was personal, like a good friend enjoyably telling you about their vacation. The stories were a delight and readers might find themselves taking notes and storing these sections away to use as their number one travel guide.”

Exactly. They nailed it. Susan writes for all of us. She knows us, knows what we enjoy, and when we read her stories, we want to go where she has gone. When she wrote about heading off with her daughter for a few days in the Finger Lakes, who didn’t want to hop in the car and head for the Finger Lakes? When she wrote about spending a night in a floating tent on a river, who was not intrigued?

And her writing is so inviting. She might be the most accessible writer in Cleveland. The judges picked up on why: she comes across like our friend.

I should note that she does not just write about places to visit. She is a hard news travel writer, covering the Cleveland tourism and hospitality business, the convention industry and Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. We’ve had a lot of people cover Hopkins in the 25 years I’ve been here. Even I had a piece of it back in the day. No one has done it better than Susan. She has the sources. She knows the history. She understands how the place works and understands which elements you care about.

And when I say she’s a hard-news reporter, I mean she’s fierce. She takes pride in breaking news. She’s the kind of reporter who, when news breaks on her beat when she’s taking a day off, will dash it off and get it into an editor’s hands fast.

I talk a lot in this column about the journalism you support when you subscribe to The Plain Dealer or cleveland.com. You support the work of reporters like Susan – officially the best travel editor in America. If you enjoy her work, how about letting her know. You can reach her at [email protected]

Thanks