The Renton Reporter won 10 awards, including two first-place awards, at last weekend’s convention of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, which annually recognizes the best work of the state’s community newspapers.
The 10 awards were among the 174 individual and staff awards won by Sound Publishing staff members in news and advertising. Sound Publishing is the Renton Reporter’s parent company.
The Renton Reporter’s 10 awards include two for last fall’s disaster preparedness special section. The section was entered by the Renton Reporter, but it was the work of news and advertising staffs at Sound Publishing newspapers in Renton, Kent, Auburn, Enumclaw and Snoqualmie Valley and Sound Publishing’s New Media staff.
The disaster section won second place for special sections and second place for Best Other Internet Feature.
Last year’s Seahawks’ special section, The Meaning of 12, edited and written by sports writer Adam McFadden, won third place for special sections.
The Renton Reporter won third place for best newspaper Web site, RentonReporter.com.
Editor Dean A. Radford and McFadden won individual awards:
Dean A. Radford: first place, general columns, including one about the controversy surrounding the firing of Renton Technical College President Don Bressler; first place, Web site slide show, on the break-in at the downtown Renton Library, and finalist for newswriter of the year.
Adam McFadden: Third place, best sports feature, on John Houston, a former Hazen basketball player; third place, best sports personality, on Lauren Herley, who performed in the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, and second place, best sports design, for a feature on three basketball players.
Seventy-seven community newspapers in four circulation groups from around the state of Washington participated in this year’s Better Newspaper Contest, with a total of 2,492 individual entries submitted. The contest was judged by the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association.
The awards were presented in Wenatchee.
