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Herald-Standard wins state, national awards

By Eric Morris emorris@heraldstandard.Com 5 min read

The Herald-Standard, members of its news staff and the newspaper’s sister publication, Greene County Messenger, won a total of 30 awards in statewide and nationwide contests in 2014.

Reporters, photographers and editors won awards for work that was done last year and submitted to news organizations for judging this year. For the contests, the organizations separate newspapers into categories based on their circulations.

Herald-Standard executive editor Michael Palm congratulated the news staff for the recognition it has received across the state and throughout the country.

“I’m extremely proud of our newsroom. Thirty awards in one year proves what great journalists we have. Our reporters, photographers and videographers have, and will continue to, excel in bringing local, relevant content,” Palm said.

Herald-Standard staffers were recognized on several occasions for “Behind Prison Walls,” a series of stories, photographs and videos published in August 2013 in the Herald-Standard and on the newspaper’s website, Heraldstandard.com.

The Herald-Standard collected six awards in the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association (PNA) Foundation Newspaper of the Year contest.

The newspaper won a first-place award for best use of photography and second-place awards for news presentation excellence, diversity, community service and best use of video. It received an honorable mention for editorial and commentary excellence.

In the same contest, among weekly publications with a circulation under 7,000, the Greene County Messenger won first-place awards for best use of photography and editorial and commentary excellence and a second-place award for special section. The Messenger received an honorable mention for news presentation excellence.

Publisher Robert Pinarski commended the news staff at the Herald-Standard and Greene County Messenger on its work.

“I’m thrilled that our editorial department has been recognized both at the state level and nationally for their great investigative reporting and feature stories,” said Pinarski. “This is a testament to the quality of people that we have in our newsroom, the staff’s journalistic integrity and the newsroom’s leadership.

“A lot of hard work went into planning and developing our feature sections and investigative reporting in 2014. We are looking to continue this excellence into 2015.”

In addition to the awards won by the Herald-Standard, members of the newspaper’s news staff won seven PNA Keystone Press Awards.

Susy Kelly and Christine Haines won a second-place award in the investigative reporting category; Kelly, Josh Krysak and Amanda Steen won a second-place award for breaking news; Miles Layton won a second-place award in the column category; Krysak and Layton won a second-place award for ongoing news coverage; Carla DeStefano and Phil Brown won a second-place award in the niche publication category for their work with GO! Magazine; Steen won a second-place award in the video story category; and Kelly, Steen and Patty Yauger received honorable mention in the news series category for “Behind Prison Walls.”

Two Herald-Standard photographers won awards from the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors (PAPME) News Excellence Competition.

Steen won second-place awards in the personality portrait and sports photo categories and Roberto Esquivel won a second-place award in the photo story category for his photography in the “Behind Prison Walls” series.

Several members of the Herald-Standard’s news staff were named finalists for the 2014 Golden Quill awards from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania.

Krysak and Diana Lasko were named finalists in the feature article or series category; Layton was a finalist in the columns category; Frances Borsodi-Zajac was named a finalist in the enterprise/investigative article or series category; and Kelly, Steen and Yauger were also finalists in the enterprise/investigative article or series category for the “Behind Prison Walls” series.

In the Excellence in Journalism Contest conducted by the Pennsylvania Women’s Press Association, Haines received honorable mention in the education category.

The Herald-Standard and staff also won five awards in nationwide contests.

“Winning five national awards is very exciting,” said Palm. “The Herald-Standard’s staff competed against hundreds of newspapers throughout the entire U.S., proving their excellence on a national level.”

In the Best in Digital Media Contest by the Local Media Association, the Herald-Standard won a third-place award in the best video initiative category for the “Featured Video” section of its website.

In the Inland Press Association New Business Development Contest, the Herald-Standard won a first-place award in the health, family and youth category for the Shape-Up Challenge and a second-place award in the education and career category for the newspaper’s education initiative.

In the Inland Press Association Newsroom Contest, Kelly, Steen and Yauger won a third-place award in the investigative reporting category and Esquivel received honorable mention in the photography — picture story category. Both awards were in recognition of the “Behind Prison Walls” series.

“We will continue to push hard and dig deep to keep the area informed,” Palm said, “as well as to find those feel-good stories that show just how great the people in our community are.”

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