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New York Press Association convention

Winning sports action photo by Bill Landon

By Heidi Sutton

From news articles and sports stories to photography, ad projects and classifieds, Times Beacon Record News Media raked in seven awards from this year’s New York Press Association’s annual Better Newspaper Contest. The winners were announced during NYPA’s annual Spring Conference on April 29 and 30. 

Participating newspapers competed for awards in 67 categories with 132 newspapers submitting a total of 2,481 entries which were judged by members of the Nebraska Press Association.

Former editor Julianne Mosher won third place in the Coverage of Crime/Police/Courts category. “Good reporting of a difficult story,” said the judge.

Sports writer Steven Zaitz won second place in the Sports Writer of the Year category. “Zaitz’s game coverage is very detailed with multiple sources used for quotes adding perspective. He gets his reader intimately familiar with the teams and athletes he’s writing about,” commented the judge.

Sports photographer Bill Landon also did well, winning third place in the Sports Action Photo category, with the judge commenting, “Great action shots of the game, as well as a reaction shot of the win. The combination shows just what this win meant for the team.”

TBR News Media won second place in the Innovate Ad Project category for its coloring book featuring Long Island artists. “Great marriage of talent and time for the dark times of COVID-19. It can be hard to support the arts, and this is a great way to do it. I think this one will get better and better,” said the judge.

The paper placed second in the Best Advertising Campaign category for its Buttercup Dairy Store ads, an easy decision for the judge. “[This] was such a sweet set of ads. I loved that they decided to focus on a few items for their specials. You can tell exactly who the ad is for. And the anniversary ad with the old photos is what did it for me. That level of personalization included into an ad would make me want to shop there! I’d love to hear their stories. Awesome job!”

The paper also won third place in the Best Advertising Campaign category for its Jolie Powell Realty ads. “I’m amazed on the number of runs this ad had and that each time it was very different. I can tell that this took some time. The use of graphics is excellent. Great job!” said the judge.

Rounding out the awards, the paper received an honorable mention in the Classified Advertising category with the judge commenting, “Clean layout, easy finding the section you want.”

“We are, of course, thrilled to continue our winning ways in the annual New York Press Association Better Newspaper Contest,” said TBR News Media Publisher Leah Dunaief. “As I like to say each year, blessings on all our clearly talented staff members, without whose Herculean efforts we could not prevail.”

Photo by David Ackerman

There’s something real about a newspaper, and it goes beyond the ink and page, beyond the action of picking one up at the drugstore or plucking it from the mailbox. 

We who work at TBR News Media imbue the paper, the one you hold in your hands right now, with our labor. If you could see us at our work, you would know just how hard and long we work to provide the community with as much local content as we can. Truly, the paper is alive.

While we editors and reporters are active in the community every day, we know the lives of the people behind the paper are not front and center.

Behind each of those bylines you might read in the paper today is a person researching, interviewing and eventually rapidly typing each deliberated word hunched over a desk. Each picture is edited and placed within the blocks of text. The ads are crafted by graphic designers spending hours arranging each one. We’re hardly some sort of news assembly line, working out of some monolithic New York City skyscraper. Our tiny, two-story office is located right here on the North Shore, blending into the surrounding rustic buildings of Setauket.

This past weekend, a team from TBR News Media traveled up to Albany for the annual New York Press Association convention. Hundreds of reporters, editors and publishers from papers from across the state gather for this annual event in a single location. 

Listening to the voices of the people at other papers during this event can be both disheartening and encouraging. Advertising dollars are down; and, while research from the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Media Engagement shows journalists rate themselves high in credibility, accuracy and trustworthiness, the public has a much lower opinion. 

“Fake news” has become a common phrase, one that was initially used for the express purpose of distorting facts during the 2016 presidential campaign. It’s now regularly used to denigrate a pillar of our democracy, which concerns us. It’s important for people to understand the importance of our profession to a healthy democracy. Comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable is an expression often used to describe the role of the newspaper. We aim to hold people in power accountable and report on government operations, so citizens become better informed voters. We take this role very seriously. 

A good chunk of our staff lives within our coverage areas along Long Island’s North Shore. We carefully report on the community because we are a part of that community. We wish to see it thrive because we ourselves care about what should happen to our neighbors and the place in which we all live.

What does that mean for you, the person holding the paper? Know that we appreciate you. You’re keeping the paper alive.