The News Democrat enjoyed an award-winning night earning seven more editorial awards, including general excellence. Involved in the presentation are Roy Brown, president and CEO of Brown Publishing; Wade Linville, Bryan Peck, Marsha Mundy; Clancy Brown, chairman of the board Brown Publishing, and Steve Triplett, publisher.
WILMINGTON - It was another award-winning evening for The News Democrat.
Brown County's newspaper of record since 1888 received seven editorial excellence awards Thursday evening, March 20, at the 15th annual Brown Publishing Company Newswriting and Photography Awards banquet held at the Roberts Centre northwest of Wilmington.
For the second year in a row the News Democrat was named a BPC General Excellence winner in print and on-line.
Journalists involved in receiving general excellence were Bryan Peck, staff writer; Michael Arthur, former associate editor; Marsha Mundy, news editor; Wade Linville, sports editor and Steve Triplett, publisher.
"It's a tremendous honor to receive general excellence two years in a row," said Steve Triplett. "The competition between Brown newspapers is fierce and oftentimes it is more difficult to win at Brown than at the state newspaper show."
The News Democrat received third place general excellence after winning first place the year before. The newspaper won seven total awards this year compared to six the year before.
The awards were presented by Roy Brown, president and CEO, and Clancy Brown, chairman of the Board of Brown Publishing.
Editorial writing has been a strength at the newspaper for some time, and Thursday was no different as The News Democrat followed up a first place at the Ohio newspaper show with a third place award.
"We take our responsibility to the community seriously. We take great pride in our editorial pages and run numerous letters to the editor in addition to our columns and editorials," said Triplett. "It is our feeling, how can you expect other people to express their opinions if you do not have one yourself? This all leads to a healthy public debate on the issues."
Michael Arthur and Triplett combined to win a second place award in Investigative/Enterprise reporting. The entry was the series done on the Cheryl Fossyl civil trial held in Covington, Ky.
"This was an outstanding job done on a local murder mystery," said the judges.
Arthur is now working for The People's Defender, another Brown newspaper, as an editor.
"These stories were widely read and it was a lot of hard work," said Triplett. "Day after day we made the trip to Covington to come back and write our stories for the Internet the same day. Michael is a talented writer and he put in long hours on this series of stories."
News Editor Marsha Mundy received second place for page one design. Mundy lays out the bulk of the news pages for The News Democrat.
"Marsha has laid out hundreds of pages over the years. She was excited to receive this recognition," said Triplett.
Bryan Peck, staff writer, picked up The News Democrat's third place award for Public Record Coverage. This award notes a newspaper's attempt to provide complete records such as marriage licenses, land transfers, police blotters and county commissioner minutes.
Peck, in 2007, was responsible for gathering much of that information.
Sports Editor Wade Linville received a second place award for Best Special Sports Section. This involved the Georgetown G-Men's run to a state basketball championship. Over a three-week period Linville produced three special sections on short notice while at the same time covering the G-Men in tournament play.
"Wade went above and beyond on these projects," said Triplett. "Just to cover the tournament takes many hours, but to do this on top of all of that is just a tremendous effort for a one-man sports staff. No other newspaper came even close to Wade's coverage of the state tournament."
Newsdemocrat.com received third place for general excellence in the company's website competition. It was the second straight year the site was recognized, receiving second place the year before.
"This was a big year for us on the Internet. We did a total redesign of the site, added video and added another site - Ripleybee.com," said Triplett. "While Bryan Peck did the yeoman's share of the work, it takes everyone in the news room contributing to produce a good website. Many of our breaking stories were published on the web before they were available in print."
Van Wert Times-Bulletin Publisher Robb Krecklow served as the master of ceremonies. Special guests included Mr. and Mrs. Clarence J. Brown; Frank Deaner of the Ohio Newspaper Association; and Nancy Nussbaum of the Ohio Associated Press.
Roy Brown congratulated the editorial departments on their awards and encouraged them to continue their dedication to community journalism. "Your commitment to local news is our foundation," he said.
In closing comments, Brown left the editors, writers and photographers with four words from one of his college football coaches.
"One of my old football line coaches often repeated these four words," Brown said. " 'Leaders motivate; winners execute.' You are winners and leaders in your communities."
The evening's closing award was the presentation of the sixth annual Clarence J. Brown Award. This year's recipient was Rose Cooper of the Wilmington News Journal and the Blanchester Star-Republican, who is celebrating 50 years in newspaper journalism in Highland and Clinton counties. Previous CJB Award winners include: Terry Baver (Kettering-Oakwood Times), Brenda Burns (Urbana Daily Citizen), Monica Nieport (Athens Messenger), Bob Robinson (Greenville Daily Advocate) and Rory Ryan (Hillsboro Times-Gazette).
Brown Publishing was founded in 1920 and has grown to be one of the largest independent, family-owned newspaper publishing companies in Ohio. In 2007, the company expanded into nine states with additional newspaper and magazine acquisitions.
The staff or The News Democrat and The Ripley Bee in February won five state awards at the Osman C. Hooper Newspaper Show in Columbus. Three of the state awards were first place. The first place awards were for Best Column, Mundy (News Democrat); Best Editorial Writing, Arthur, Mundy and Triplett (News Democrat) and Best Sports Special Section, Linville (Ripley Bee).
Since 2002 The News Democrat and Ripley Bee staff have earned more than 40 awards for editorial excellence from the Ohio Newspaper Association, the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists and Brown Publishing.
"We will be celebrating by providing pizza on Proofreader Appreciation Day. We also want to recognize the job that they (proofreaders) do - that pretty much includes the entire office," said Triplett.
Reader Comments
Posted: Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Article comment by:
Jim Allessi
Fayetteville football will be holding its 1st annual golf outing August 14 at the Deer Track Golf course in Goshen Ohio. First tee time is 1:00. The outing will be a four-man scramble format. The registration fee is $65 per golfer. The cost in includes 18 holes of golf, cart and a grill out after the scramble. The first 100 golfers to register will get a box lunch provided by Jersey Mikes on the day of the event. There will be a raffle, silent auction and different prizes awarded during the grill out after the scramble. If you are business and would like to be hole sponsor you can register on line also.
Fayetteville started its football program 4 years ago. The 2010 season will be the school’s first ever Varsity Football season. In honor of this, Fayetteville Youth Football is holding this outing in support of our high school team. Come out and help use celebrate our first varsity football season.
You can register for the event at www.fayettevillefootball.com
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