Straus News publications win 12 awards for journalism and design

Straus News, the parent company of this paper and 16 other publications across New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania announced that its reporters, editors and graphic designers took home 12 awards in the 2022 Better Newspaper Contest. The annual awards recognize outstanding journalism produced by community newspapers and were presented at the New York Press Association Conference in Albany April 1.

Straus News’ publications earned awards in varied categories.

The Warwick Advertiser won second place for coverage of local government. The judges said: “Really compelling enterprise reporting here, including tracking IP addresses and web site ownership” in referring to the work reporters did to reveal a village trustee was behind multiple anonymous, politically charged websites in town.

That same story earned The Warwick Advertiser second place for Becca Tucker, Molly Colgan, Hanna Wickes and Pete Pinto in the coverage of election and politics category.

Colgan’s stories about long COVID and “dry January” took second place in the coverage of health care and science category.

Tucker’s story about shoplifting in the era of heavy surveillance won second place for best news story.

In the coverage of business, financial and economic news, The Photo News took an honorable mention and the judges recognized Tucker and Colgan’s work: “Really nice subject matter selected and writing. I appreciated that you humanized the tech in self check-out and LOVED the side hustle story. It’s clear that you two care about your audience.”

The Photo News took third place for its coverage of crime, police and the courts for “nice work on a collection of issues the community was grappling with,” judges said, “including teen drug use and road rage.”

The Warwick Advertiser was recognized with a second place win in the “Best Freedom of Information Award” category for Tucker’s article: “Latest front in the culture wars: school library books.”

The Chronicle won third place in the audience development promotion category for its requestor initiative using stop signs.

Director of Design Christina Scotti’s graphic illustrations for news stories took third place for The Warwick Advertiser. Her design of advertising messages for Mohawk House won second place for best advertising campaign and took first place for Industry in the best large space ad category.

Our Town won second place for best special section cover for its Spring Arts Guide issue.

Commenting on the many awards the papers received, publisher Jeanne Straus said “local news reporting is hard and our reporters, editors and designers are doing outstanding work. It’s incredibly gratifying to receive these awards in such a competitive arena. It’s also meaningful when our readers tell us our local reporting matters.”