PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – University of Vermont’s Alex Strand earned several first-place awards in the Better Newspaper competition at the New England Newspaper Association (NENPA) annual meeting last month. Strand worked as an intern with The Hardwick Gazette last summer. The weekly News & Citizen, statewide Seven Days and online VTDigger all earned awards too, along with Danville’s North Star Monthly and other Vermont publications.
Strand earned the first-place College Rising Star award for her work with The Vermont CYNIC and for a feature story, also for the CYNIC, with her story, “Crossing borders: the complexities of Indigenous studies and identity in Vermont.”
The feature story award category “had 21 entries, with many, many excellent entries,” wrote organizers. “It was very difficult to judge. This story was truly excellent, and hit all the marks of a superior feature story for this audience – thorough, well written and researched, artfully told, and fundamentally connected to the Vermont College (and larger) community with implications far beyond these. Great job.”
The Vermont Cynic earned a first-place award in the Multimedia Reporting College category for its live updates of the 2024 presidential election and third-place in the Online News Site category, where organizers wrote, “The Vermont Cynic demonstrates strong campus journalism and a clear editorial voice that serves its student audience well. Improvements to homepage visual consistency and layout would elevate usability and strengthen the site’s impact as an online news destination.”
The News & Citizen, covering Lamoille County, received awards in many categories, including first-place in the Editorial Best Niche Publication category for the Stowe Magazine summer edition. “After seeing the Stowe Summer magazine last year, I had high expectations for this edition, and it did not disappoint. The magazine is filled with excellent content, including stories, photos, ads, and more. I appreciate the clean layout and the effective use of typography. Whoever is responsible for the ads definitely deserves a raise!” said a reviewer.
They took home a first-place in Advertising General Excellence too, where it was noted, “The News & Citizen has a wonderful balance of being smartly-designed and packed with information, advertising, etc. A wonderful community newspaper.”
Writing for the North Star Monthly, Beth Kanell garnered first-place for the Local Personality Profile among Specialty Publications for “The Evolution of Larry Golden: Basketball Star to Artist.” Where “The personality, talent and gumption of a remarkable community member come through in the writing of ‘The Evolution of Larry Golden,’ wrote organizers.
Seven Days and VTDigger each took home a considerable number of awards.
