AUBURN — The Aroostook Republican & News won four awards in the 2014 Maine Press Association Better Newspaper Contest as the organization held its annual fall conference Oct. 18 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Auburn.
Staff Writer Natalie De La Garza won a first-place award in the News/Sports Headline-Weekly 1 division while and she teamed up with her co-workers — Theron Larkins, Gayle Jackson and Lisa Anderson — to take top honors in the Best Young Reader Idea with the paper’s annual Newspapers In Education supplement.
De La Garza was also recognized by her peers with a second-place award in the Picture Story category and third-place honors in the Continuing Story competition.
The Observer also won a third-place award in the Best Young Reader Engagement Idea-Weekly for its annual Newspapers in Education section. Northeast Publishing swept the top three places with the Aroostook Republican taking first place and the Houlton Pioneer Times finishing second.
The Portland Press Herald, Mount Desert Islander, York Weekly and Maine Sunday Telegram were the major winners in the Better Newspaper Contest General Excellence-Print division while the Wiscasset Newspaper/Boothbay Register and Press Herald/Telegram received top honors for General Excellence-Digital. This was the first year that the MPA held a separate contest for digital entries, reflecting the increased viewership of Internet news sites.
The Journalist of the Year award went to Colin Woodard of the Portland Press Herald; the Advertising Person of the Year is Brenda Allen of the Portland Press Herald; Dominik Lobkowicz of the Lincoln County News won the Bob Drake Young Writers Award; and Gary Gagne of the Maine Daily Newspaper Network was honored by the MPA as the Unsung Hero of the Year.
The new Hall of Fame inductees were the late Robert Crocker, a long-time Associated Press state house reporter; and Richard Dudman, a retired St. Louis Post Dispatch correspondent and editorial writer for the Bangor Daily News.
A complete list of 2014 award winners will be posted this week on http://mainepress.wordpress.com.
