The Daily Hampshire Gazette and its sister publications the Valley Advocate and The Greenfield Recorder took home 23 awards from the 2020 New England Better Newspaper Competition, Saturday, in Boston.
Competing against other daily newspapers with circulations up to 20,000 across the six states, the Gazette’s staff received recognition in more than a dozen categories from judges for the New England Newspaper & Press Association.
“Earning 13 awards is a tremendous achievement and a testament to the fine work our journalists are doing each and every day,” said Michael Moses, publisher of the Pioneer Valley Newspapers.
Among those winning awards were editor in chief Brooke Hauser, photo editor Carol Lollis, features reporter Steve Pfarrer, news reporters Dusty Christensen, Bera Dunau, Greta Jochem, Scott Merzbach and Jacquelyn Voghel, sports reporter Kyle Grabowski, and page designer Nicole Chotain and special content coordinator Dane Kuttler.
A first-place award went to the front page of the Valley Advocate for a March 2019 cover story on military recruitment in schools, with the judges crediting art director Jennifer Levesque for her work. “Effectively presented with an excellent photo illustration, good color and typography,” they noted.
In the sports department, Grabowski earned a second-place award for his December 2018 sports feature “Erik Ostberg spends baseball’s offseason working out with Ahmed brothers.”
“If you like baseball, you will love this behind the scenes story of how players are made and trained,” the judges wrote.
Christensen and Dunau each took home two awards. Christensen’s included second place for investigative or enterprise reporting, “In a Glass Box” a January 2019 piece that detailed abuse suffered by Clarke School alumni and which judges called “a terrific example of building on an investigation done by others by adding new and significant information to the story.” A third-place award to Christensen and Merzbach was for education reporting in the 2019 series “Hampshire in Transition,” for which judges noted it was “thoroughly covered and gave the reader plenty of detail.”
Dunau earned a third-place award in general news story for his December 2018 piece “Last call at legendary Northampton bar,” about Hugo’s closing. “Excellent quotes woven into this nostalgic piece,” the judges wrote. He also received a third-place award for local election coverage with “Five districts, five paths to victory,” about the September 2018 state primaries.
Jochem got third place for history reporting, “The legend of ‘Lesbianville’” in May 2019, and Voghel earned a similar third place for obituaries for the April 2019 “The thing itself: Family, friends, writers remember life of editor Richard Todd.”
“Richard Todd would have approved of this piece,” the judges wrote.
Pfarrer earned a second-place nod for arts and entertainment reporting for his January 2019 “Extraordinary Paintings of Ordinary Gals,” as well as a third-place award for a human interest feature story for September 2018, “Jarrett Krosoczka uses art to come to terms with a difficult childhood.”
On the commentary page, Hauser got third place for her September 2018 piece “Be less white, please.” “Thoughtful and provocative” is how the judges summarized their recognition.
Lollis took second place in personality photo for the work titled “World’s Strongest Gay Man” printed in May 2019.
Former writer Andy Castillo, now features editor at the Recorder, got a third-place award for local personality profile for the October 2018 “Flipping the script on loneliness.”
Chotain and Kuttler were recognized for the niche publication “Visitor Guide 2019.”
In addition to the first-place entry, the Valley Advocate got three other awards, and several were given to the Recorder.
“I’m proud to serve as publisher of these historic newspapers, and especially proud of our entire, talented team,” Moses said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
