By Angela Marshall
In all, the Merrick Herald won seven awards in the contest, including three first places.
The Merrick Herald took home first place for in-depth reporting for a two-year investigation conducted by Senior Editor Scott Brinton that ultimately led to the shutdown of Freeport Village's pollution-spewing diesel Power Plant No. 2. The award was earned in Division 4, the highest circulation category.
Judges said of the project, Good, old-fashioned crusade! Great human-impact sidebars, obvious evidence of digging. Strong editorials, too.
Brinton also received an honorable mention in the community leadership category for his 26-part series examining the plight of parkway woodlands surrounding Merrick, Bellmore and East Meadow.
And Brinton shared an honorable mention for editorial writing with Nassau Herald Editor Jeff Lipton and Herald Executive Editor and Publisher Clifford Richner. Brinton's editorial, Albany, held up by fear and/or greed, appeared in all editions of the Herald and offered suggestions for relieving legislative gridlock in the state capital. The press association award went to the Nassau Herald.
Merrick Herald reporter Linda Delmonico-Prussen grabbed a first place for sports feature writing. Prussen's winning article looked at a young ice-skater aspiring to Olympic glory in 2006.
Judges said of the Prussen's work, Great subject. Good lead. Nicely done.
Nick Buglione, assistant editor of the Merrick, Bellmore and East Meadow Heralds, received a third place for a piece he wrote about wheelchair basketball that appeared in the East Meadow Herald on the Neighbors page.
Judges wrote of the work, Nicely reported and written. Good depth. Informative.
The Nassau Herald earned a first-place award for coverage of education, which included a survey conducted by the paper in which new security measures at the public schools were tested.
Of the award, the judges said: Thorough and balanced broad coverage and nice work on enterprise stories involving very topical issues.
In addition, the Nassau Herald won a second-place award for coverage of crime, police and courts, for the story of a man accused in the murder of his brother on Jefferson Street in Inwood.
Solid, straight reporting and writing in your news pages, the judges said of the coverage. Stories are not bogged down with official lingo.' Stories have a sense of place and balance, especially the murder on Jefferson Street.
Nassau Herald Editor Jeff Lipton took third place for community service, again for his investigation of school security in the Five Towns. Judges said the investigation is a role model for newspapers of all sizes.
Herald newspapers also took home first-place honors for spot news reporting and column writing.
The Heralds' art department won the award for best special-section advertising.
And the Herald's advertising department scored big at the state convention, taking first place for best large-space ad and third place for overall advertising excellence.
It won eight awards, including two first places for best large-space ad in the Nassau Herald and best special-section advertising for the Menu Guide, which appeared in all 13 Herald newspapers. The Menu Guide also earned third place for best special-section cover, designed by Mike Bologna, the papers' general manager. And the department came in third for overall advertising excellence.
Ads in the Rockville Centre Herald received honorable-mention awards in both the best special-section advertising and best small-space ad categories. The Merrick Herald won honorable mention in multi-advertiser pages.
The advertising department also took two blooper awards, much to its chagrin Ñ and the delight of its colleagues in Saratoga. Presentation of the first-place ad for a fruit laxative that was so easy to use you just poop in your mouth, really got the crowd going.
One hundred eighty-four newspapers submitted a total of 3,621 entries to the annual Better Newspaper Contest, which was judged by members of the Illinois Press Association on Jan. 23. The many contest categories were divided into four divisions based on circulation.
Super. Absolutely super, exclaimed the Heralds' elated publisher, Clifford Richner, when asked for his reaction to the papers' numerous awards.
I think this is the best staff we've ever had, and the breadth and depth of the awards reflect that. To win spot news and in-depth reporting, coverage of education and coverage of crime, opinion writing, sports ... It really shows what a small staff can do with commitment and good, old-fashioned hard work.
