13 First Place Awards for Williston Herald in North Dakota
The Williston Herald Managing Editor Jamie Kelly won the Photo of the Year award for his photo of a rainbow above the Hedderich’s sign during the July 10 fire that destroyed the building. 
In all, the news staff won 13 first-place awards. Former reporter Elizabeth Hackenburg won first place in the news reporting category for her story on a Williston police officer trying to get state benefits to treat PTSD. Former copy editor Lee Zion won first-place for front-page design. The Herald staff also won first place for overall design excellence.Assistant Managing Editor Renée Jean won three first-place awards — for government reporting for her coverage of a two-day hearing on Hub City funding, for business news for her story about Style UNCorked changing its name after the franchise it belonged to closed, and for agricultural reporting for a story about low prices for industrial hemp.Kelly won seven first-place awards — in spot news reporting for his coverage of the shooting of Vance Neset in July, in editorial writing, in both serious and humorous personal columns, in the infographic category and in both news and spot news photography.Hackenburg got a second-place award for feature photography, former Herald reporter Jeffrey Giuliani earned second-place awards in sports reporting and sports column writing, Kelly won second-place in the government reporting series category and the staff took second in the website category.Jean got third in the government reporting series category and Zion got third in the photo story category.In the advertising categories, Herald graphic designer Mandy Atwood, former Herald ad staffers Samantha Binder and Linley Vanacore and Herald advertising supervisor Michelle Yelverton won first place in the special advertising section for the Herald’s 2017 Small Business Saturday special section.Atwood earned a second-place award in the promotion of readership category. Binder won first-place awards in three categories — food ad, vehicle ad and best use of small space.Vanacore placed second in the outdoor/sports ad category and third in the financial ad category.Yelverton got an honorable mention in the financial ad category, a third place in the vehicle ad category and a second place for use of color.