Nogales International returns from Phoenix ceremony loaded with kudos
Wick News Service
Wick Communications was proud to announce that the Nogales International came home, literally, with a bag full of awards Saturday from the 2008 Arizona Newspaper Association Better Newspapers Contest awards dinner. The ceremony took place in Phoenix at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
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The milestone, which falls on the coattail of the newspaper being named the Inland Press Association’s “Best in the Nation” for 2007, has begun a string of awards that the newspaper has recently received.
The Nogales International brought home nine awards Saturday – six of which were for first place. The most prestigious of the honors was the General Excellence Award for its circulation class (non-daily under 3,500). That award is decided on the most points for entries submitted in the editorial and advertising contests, according to ANA spokesperson Perri Collins. Although the NI did not submit any advertising contest entries, its editorial staff still had enough points to take top honors. That number of points, however, was not known by press time.
“That’s a great accomplishment,” said the paper’s Editor and Publisher Manuel C. Coppola. “If we would have submitted advertising entries, who knows what the numbers would have been, because our advertising staff surely would have held its own against the best in the state.”
From an editorial standpoint, however, the newspaper’s accomplishments broke down like this:
- First place in Reporting and News Writing Excellence
- First place in Page Design Excellence
- First place in Best Use of Photography
- First Place in Best Online Site / Web Page
- Third place in Community Service and Journalistic Achievement
Individually, NI reporter Denise Holley took a second-place award in Best News Story for her article “Ceremony honors Cordova.”
“A nice, feel-good story,” said one judge of Holley’s work.
“It’s the first journalism award I’ve had in five years,” said Holley, who has been with the NI since November, but in the newspaper business since 1984. “I’m happy to be here and contributing to the Nogales International.”
Other individual awards were won by Assistant Editor William Wilczewski, who took a first place in Best News Photograph and a second place in Best Feature Photo Layout.
Judges emphasized that the composition and cropping of the photos is what stole their vote.
“Taking accident photos is easy, but capturing the human emotion involved is much more difficult,” said one judge. “The photographer here did that exceptionally well.”
“We don’t get paid much in this business, so these awards are real nice to get,” said Wilczewski with a snicker. “Seriously, though, it’s a pleasure to serve such a close-knit community. The people around here are what makes it all worthwhile.”
On a side note, Wilczewski lauded the work of everyone on the NI staff, but emphasized the work of David M. Ramirez, design and production, and Christian Ramirez, the newspaper’s former Webmaster, for their contributions to the contest.
This year, 63 newspapers and 12 high schools entered the contest for a total of 1,197 entries, according to an ANA press release. The ANA Better Newspapers Contest consists of nine categories that measure the overall quality of the newspapers and 13 categories that honor individuals who contribute to journalism excellence.
The Kentucky Press Association helped judge this year’s entries.