The Vineyard Gazette earned 23 awards at the New England Better Newspaper Competition held in Waltham over the weekend, including eight first place finishes for its website, photography, columns and illustration.
Webmaster Graham Smith earned a first place award for the second year in a row for best website homepage, and editor Bill Eville won first prize for the fifth year in a row for serious columnist.
The contest period ran from August 1, 2022 through July 31, 2023, with weekly and small daily newspapers competing in five circulation categories.
The Gazette’s Juneteenth promotion earned a first place award for business innovation, and Paul Karasik’s illustrated story about Scott Young, clock winder at the First Congregational Church of West Tisbury, won first prize.
Photography was well represented at the ceremony, with Tim Johnson winning first and second place awards for his feature photos. First place awards also went to Maria Thibodeau for her pictorial photo of a wintry dock, Jonathan Fleischmann for his shot of the Island Cup and Colin Hurd for a lighting strike in Menemsha harbor. Larry Glick won a third place prize for his personality photo.
Thomas Humphrey picked up two awards — a second place finish for his personality profile of Walter Wlodyka, the Island’s skunk man, and a third place finish for his human interest story on environmental engineer Doug Cooper.
Louisa Hufstader earned a second place finish for her social issues feature story covering food insecurity on the Island.
Tim Johnson was honored for his shot of Giordano’s at night.
— Tim Johnson
The Gazette team of Brooke Kushwaha, Thomas Humphrey and Noah Glasgow were recognized with a third place award for their spot news coverage of the migrants arrival on the Vineyard in September 2022.
Additional awards included second place finishes for best podcast (Shed), digital strategy excellence, overall design of a special section (Jared Maciel, Susie Middleton), niche publication (Jane McTeigue, Nicole Fullin), pure advertising niche publication (McKinley Sanders), front page (Steve Durkee) and best overall website (Graham Smith); and third place finishes for living page (Steve Durkee), and pure advertising niche publication (McKinley Sanders).
