A Big Haul: Arizona Wick Papers Win More Than 100 ANA Awards

It would be an understatement to say that Wick newspapers did well in the Arizona Newspaper Association’s annual Better Newspaper Contest.

All in all, the publications took home a number of awards that reached into the triple digits. Some of the highlights:

• Bill Hess, of the Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review, was named the daily Journalist of the Year. Hess was honored for his body of work which included stories of an aerostat falling from the sky; his Monument Fire coverage; and samples of his weekly column.
• For the fourth consecutive year, Dave Brown, of the Arizona Range News, was named the non-daily Photographer of the Year.
• After being named Arizona’s non-daily Newspaper of the Year in 2011, the Tucson Weekly just missed earning the honor again, winning top general excellence honors in both the editorial and advertising contests.
The contest covered work done from May 1, 2011, through April 30, 2012. The results were announced at the ANA’s annual convention in Scottsdale on Saturday, Sept. 29.
Some more highlights by newspaper:
• The Arizona Range News received second place for Community Service/Journalistic Achievement in the category for non-dailies with a circulation of less than 3,500, for a series written by reporter Carol Broeder on the closure of the community’s only movie theater, and the actions of a community group trying to purchase and re-open the theater. The Range News also won third place for Departmental News and Copywriting Excellence. All told, Arizona Range News took home about a dozen and a half awards, including second place for general excellence in the ad contest.
• The Green Valley News, in the medium-sized non-daily category (circulation 3,500 to 10,000), nabbed more than a dozen awards, including third-place honors for advertising general excellence; first place for Special Section/Newspaper Supplement or Magazine; first place for Best Feature Photograph; and first place for Best Feature Photo Layout.
• Inside Tucson Business, in the medium non-daily category (circulation between 3,500 and 10,000), nabbed nine honors, including third-place for editorial general excellence, and top honors in the Enterprise Reporting category, for reporter Patrick McNamara’s reports on the tribulations of Tucson’s downtown revitalization efforts.
• Today’s News Herald, in Lake Havasu, earned about 10 awards, including second place for advertising general excellence, in the category for dailies with a circulation of less than 25,000. On the ad side, first-place honors came in the Best Color Ad and Best Animated Web Ad categories; on the editorial side, Jackie Leatherman won first place for Best News Feature Story.
• The Nogales International nabbed 10 prizes, including five awards for sports editor William Wilczewski. It also won first place in its division (non-dailies with a circulation of less than 3,500) for Editorial Page Excellence; second place for Reporting and Newswriting Excellence; and third place for general excellence.
• The Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review, in the category of daily newspapers with a circulation of less than 25,000, nabbed around a dozen and a half honors, including third place for editorial general excellence. The paper also won first place in the Best Use of Photography category; second place for Community Service/Journalistic Achievement; third place in the Department News/Copy Editing category; second place in Editorial Page Excellence; third place in Reporting and Newswriting Excellence; and third place in the Special Sections category.
• The Tucson Weekly, in the category of non-dailies with a circulation of greater than 10,000, took home a whopping 36 awards, including the aforementioned general excellence honors. The Weekly editorial side won nine first-place awards, including top honors for Departmental News/Copy Editing Excellence, and Page Design Excellence. The Weekly swept the Investigative-Reporting category, as well as the Best Column: Analysis or Commentary category.