By Alex Ginsberg
The TimesLedger Newspapers won nine awards in the National Newspaper Association’s 2003 Better Newspaper Contest last week, drawing praise from judges in a competition against weekly and national newspapers from across the nation.
The NNA awards included four first-place honors for local news coverage, sports feature, business story and humorous column as well as two second-place prizes, one third-place honor and two honorable mentions.
“What it demonstrates is that the newspapers we put out are among the best in the country at covering their communities,” said TimesLedger Publisher Steve Blank, who bought the Bayside Times and the Little Neck Ledger in 1989 and has since added 12 other community papers.
The judges agreed, awarding the Bayside Times first place for best coverage of local news in the 6,000 and higher weekly circulation category. Some of the items covered included a special section commemorating the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and a voters’ guide to the state primary election for candidates running in Queens.
“Depth of coverage sets this paper above all others,” one judge wrote. “Amazing production by writers. Variety is excellent. There’s so much here you can read this paper for a week.”
Contributing writer Philip Newman was honored for his feature on the 50th anniversary of the NCAA basketball championship game between St. John’s University and the University of Kansas, while reporter Alexander Dworkowitz was recognized for his coverage of business development in Flushing.
Alex Berger received first place for a humorous column recalling life growing up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
“I’m very proud of the staff,” said Blank. “It pleases me to see the type of journalism we’re producing acknowledged. I already knew that we had one of the most talented reporting and editing staffs in the country, but it’s nice to get the recognition from our peers.”
Second place prizes were awarded to the Bayside Times for best editorial, in recognition of a piece advocating New York City as a site of the 2012 Olympics, and best newspaper promotion, prepared by Art Director Jewell Davis. Reporter Dustin Brown earned third place honors for an education/literacy story and honorable mentions went out to the TimesLedger sports department for best sports sections and to the Richmond Hill Times for best local news coverage in the under 3,000 circulation category.
The NNA contest is the most wide-ranging of the three the TimesLedger has entered this year, with more than 3,000 daily and weekly community newspapers from across the country competing.
The TimesLedger Newspapers won 34 awards at the New York Press Association contest in April and 10 at the Suburban Newspapers of America contest in January. The TimesLedger won more awards in the three contests for a combined total of 53 than ever before, as well as more in each separate contest than in any previous instance.
“I think we can safely say we’ve done a hell of a job covering Queens this year,” Blank said.
In addition to the Bayside Times and Little Neck Ledger, the TimesLedger chain includes the Whitestone Times, the Flushing Times, the Fresh Meadows Times, the Glen Oaks Ledger, the Queens Village Times, the Jamaica Times, the Laurelton Times, the Forest Hills Ledger, the Richmond Hill Times, the Astoria Times, the Ridgewood Ledger and the Howard Beach Times.
Reach reporter Alex Ginsberg by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 157.
