Bringing home the hardware, NLJ recognized for several areas of excellence

Local newspapers are a vital member of any community, with journalists, photographers and designers, as well as a support team, doing their best to actively bring news to their area to spread awareness, inform and entertain the public they work for. It’s how members of the community know what’s going on in their local government, what’s happening on the weekend, who their neighbors are and how all these things affect them.

Each year newspapers across the country gauge how they are performing by entering their newspaper’s work in contests, usually a statewide association, as well as on the national level. For the News Letter Journal, the statewide association is the Wyoming Press Association, where, in January, the NLJ staff was awarded five major awards and 21 Pacemakers.

Adding to that, NLJ learned last week that the newspaper has received nine awards on the national level for its work in 2023, from the National Newspaper Association’s 2024 Better Newspaper Advertising and Editorial Contest.

The News Letter Journal earned two first-place awards for its 2023 entries, both awarded to Amy Menerey, the paper’s graphic designer. They were for Best Single Black and White ad and Best Front Page Design. In addition, NLJ staff earned third-place nationwide in General Excellence, third place for Best Local News Coverage and third place for Best Use of Photographs. Second-place awards went to Sonja Karp, for Best Sports Column, and Best Sports Section to Menerey and Karp. Additionally, Walter Sprague earned third-place nationwide in the small-newspaper category for Best Profile Feature Story. Menerey also took home third for Best Feature Photo.

“I continue to be incredibly proud of the staff at the News Letter Journal, who prove week in and week out that they are producing one of the country’s top small newspapers,” publisher Bob Bonnar said. The people who serve Newcastle and Weston County by working at the NLJ represent the best in small-town media and demonstrate consistently what community journalism is supposed to be.”

“I’m also grateful to the community for their continued support and to those ‘citizen journalists’ who contribute photos, write-ups, story ideas and other things that help make modern newspapers an even more integral part of their community than they were before,” Bonnar continued. “We truly enjoy a partnership with our community and its residents that produces great value for Weston County.”

Kim Dean, the News Letter Journal’s managing editor, also expressed her thoughts on the work the NLJ staff did to bring these awards home.

“I’m proud of our staff and the important work we do every week, and we are honored to be recognized nationally for our efforts. We are thankful to our community and advertisers who continue to support NLJ by sharing their stories, subscribing and trusting us with their advertising needs. It is awesome to see our fellow Wyoming newspapers being recognized and bringing home so many national awards,” Dean said

These contests, judged by journalism peers, help newspapers understand their strengths and weaknesses, as they strive to better serve their public.

This week, NLJ also learned that Wyoming newspaper members also earned the most NNA awards for their 2023 work. According to a release from the Wyoming Press Association, in 2020 the National Newspaper Association Foundation created a new award to celebrate the state association with the most winning entries in the NNAF Better Newspaper Contests. The Wyoming Press Association was the first state association to be honored with this award. In 2021, WPA came in second but went on to win the award again in 2022 and 2023.

WPA has taken Best of NNA again this year, being awarded the fifth-annual award, for their 103 winning entries by member newspapers in Wyoming, beating out California, which had the next most wins with 68 and Iowa with 59 wins.

NLJ’s sister newspaper, the Buffalo Bulletin, won General Excellence in its category, and brought home a whopping 20 awards from the national competition.