NewsBeat

May 2023 NewsBeat 2 CLIP & SAVE Mark your calendar September 21-23 New York Press Association Fall Pubishers' Conference Boston, Mass. October 1-8 National Newspaper Week A NEWSLETTER FOR NEW YORK'S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS Published by the New York Press Association 621 Columbia Street Ext., Suite 100, Cohoes, NY 12047 518.464.6483 • 518.464.6489 fax • www.nynewspapers.com Editors - Michelle K. Rea and Judy Patrick NewsBeat By JUDY PATRICK Times Union, Highlands Current both earn newspaper of the year honors The traditional display of newspapers from across the state at NYPA's 2023 conference in Albany. T he Highlands Current of Philipstown and the Times Union of Albany shared top honors at the New York Press Association's spring Convention and Trade Show March 31-April 1. The two newspapers were both named "2022 Newspaper of the Year," a distinction awarded to the paper dominating the asso- ciation's annual Better Newspaper Contest. This is the first year two papers have tied for the award. In all, 154 newspapers submitted 2,657 entries to the Better Newspaper Contest covering achievements during the 2022 calendar year. The competition includes 70 categories covering the editorial, advertising and circulation efforts of New York state's daily and weekly newspapers. Entries this year were judged by members of the Colo- rado Press Association. The two-day conference, at the Hilton in downtown Albany, featured recognized industry leaders as seminar speakers con- ducting more than 60 educational sessions important to community newspaper person- nel. "Celebrating their accomplishments is something newspapers don't do often enough. Newspapers create a brand-new product on a daily or weekly basis, 52 weeks a year. They work on tight deadlines with small staffs, covering local govern- ment, breaking news, sports, business, entertainment, and more. Receiving recog- nition from their peers in another state is affirming and energizing. We salute them for the top quality, important work they do," said NYPA executive director, Michelle Rea The Times Union also won the Stuart C. Dorman Award for Editorial Excellence, winning first-place awards for investigative reporting; covering of crime, police and courts; coverage of elections and politics; best column; best editorial cartoon; best freedom of information piece; distin- guished coverage of diversity and feature photo. The Highlands Current was the runner up in this category. Dorman, who died in 1978, was an important fixture in the publishing world and once owned the Suffolk Times and News-Review The Post-Standard of Syracuse won the 2022 John J. Evans Award for Advertising Excellence. This was the fourth consecutive year the paper has taken first place in the advertising category. The award is named for the former executive vice president of Bee Publications in Buffalo who also served as president of the NYPA board. The awards also included: *Jeff Coltin of City & State: Writer of the Year *Christopher Gangemi of The East Hamp- ton Star, Rookie Reporter of the Year *Mike MacAdam of the Daily Gazette, Sports Writer of the Year *Dean Moses of amNew York Metro, Pho- tographer of the Year. *The Suffolk Times and The Smithtown News won, in their respective divisions, the Past Presidents' Award for General Excel- lence. *The Colonie Spotlight and The East Hampton Press secured wins, in their divi- sions, for best front page. *The award for best editorial page went to the Williston Times while The Suffolk Times took top honors for photographic excellence. *The Rosyln Times won the top award for overall design excellence with the High- lands Current taking first place for adver- tising excellence. NYPA's annual competition includes sep- arate categories for high school and college newspapers. In the college competition, The Ithacan (of Ithaca College) and The Impact (of Mer- cy College) shared college newspaper of the year honors . In the high school competition, The Tow- er of The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry was named high school newspaper of the year.

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