Competing against some of the largest publications in the contest, The Reflector was honored with a second-place General Excellence Award, Photographer of the Year, Ad of the Year and more awards during the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspaper Contest gala in Wenatchee on Oct. 4.
The Reflector finished second in Group 4 of the contest for General Excellence, falling just behind the Cascadia Daily News in first place and ahead of The Wenatchee World in third place.
“A nice newspaper with a wide variety of stories across the entries submitted.” judges commented on The Reflector’s overall submissions that earned the General Excellence Award.
Longtime Reflector design chief David Boemke was honored with two major awards, including Ad of the Year and first-place Full Page Ad, which were both completed as part of the newspaper’s coverage of the Southwest Washington wine scene. He also took home second place in Feature Page Design.
Reflector journalist Cade Barker was honored as Photographer of the Year.
“A diverse selection of events captured magnificently by this talented photographer,” judges wrote. “Great use of framing and angles in images.”
In addition, Barker won a first place award in the the Long News Story category, second place in both the Portrait Photo and Sports Feature Photo categories, and third place in the Pictorial Photo category.
Fellow reporter Norman Helgason also earned a slew of awards, including first place honors for Long General Feature Story, Long Personality Profile and Comprehensive Coverage by a Single Writer. He also won second place in the Animal Feature Story category and third place in the Portrait Photo category.
Eric Schwartz, who oversees editorial operations as Editor-in-Chief of CT Publishing but largely relies on Boehmke, Barker and Helgason for day-to-day operations at The Reflector, said the achievements by the small staff were remarkable.
“If you look at the size of the newsrooms The Reflector was competing with, their accomplishments in the contest are all the more impressive,” Schwartz said. “Readers are fortunate to have such dedicated and talented journalists to rely on for their community news each week. I am proud of each of them, and I am very lucky to have the opportunity to work with them.”
Learn more about the contest and the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association at https://wnpa.com/.
