Paper wins first place

BOSTON — The Advertiser Democrat won First Place in the Special Award category Saturday, at the annual New England Newspaper and Press Association (NENPA)  convention, in its Better Newspaper Contest, over newspapers from six New England states.

The award was for coverage of the 2010 casino vote. The contest is judged each year by members of the press from across the nation and faculty of myriad university journalism schools.

The Advertiser submitted entries in two categories this year and won for its casino coverage, which included its sponsoring of a debate which was aired on Time Warner Cable statewide as well as on Maine Public Broadcasting Network.

The judges' comments, which accompanied the award, were as follows:

"This weekly gets high marks for assuming a leadership role on the proposal to place a casino in this rural area of Maine. The paper devoted energy and space to news stories, letters and analysis. It went one step better by organizing a community debate that was aired by public radio and cable.

"Let's give credit for the great job the paper did, while maintaining its regular week-to-week coverage – no small task. Excellent resources, excellent coverage. Bravo. You deserve this."

The series was written by A.M. Sheehan and Matt Hongoltz-Hetling.

One other Sun Media Group paper – The Forecaster – won numerous awards in various categories.

Members of the editorial staffs of both papers, as well as three members of the Costello family, which owns Sun Media, attended the convention.  Adam Kempler, chief web officer of Sun Media's Celsius Technology Group and Anthony J. Ronzio, new media director, Sun Media Group, presented one of the many workshops offered – Creating New Revenue Streams From Your Online Content.

The contest had more than 3,000 entries and the two-day convention was attended by journalists from all six New England states.