The Hudson Reporter chain of newspapers has won several top honors in the New Jersey Press Association’s annual statewide journalism contest, including first place awards in two prestigious investigative journalism categories.
The stories were selected from 1597 weekly entries up from the 1505 submitted last year’s competition.
The NJPA announced last weekend that the newspapers had won the following awards:
• David Danzig of the Hoboken Reporter won first prize in the Public Service category for his dogged coverage of Hoboken’s proposed rent control amendments, coverage that included eight cover stories on the controversial issue;
• Jonathan Miller and Sondra Wolfer of the Jersey City Reporter won first prize for an investigative story that looked into the checkered development history of Peter Mocco, who intends to develop the largest property presently awaiting construction on the Jersey City waterfront;
• Senior Staff Writer Al Sullivan, who writes for the Secaucus Reporter, won second place in the Feature Writing category for his article “Uncovering the Jewish Past” about a Jewish genealogist. He also won third place in Environmental Writing for his continued coverage of the controversy surrounding the contaminated former Keystone Metals factory in Secaucus. And he received honorable mention for a photograph of a “Food Not Bombs” demonstration that appeared in the Hoboken Reporter.
• Billy Atwell won first place for “Front Desk Chiropractic,” in the Best In-Column Classified Ad Idea category. Atwell, a sales representative, also won third place for Best In-Column Classified Ad with Graphics for “Forehead Productions,” a project that also included the work of sales representative Carrie Hall and graphic artists Margaret Decandia and Mark Matcho.
• Graphic artist Marian Gallagher-Stahlin won third place in the classified advertising Promotion Idea, “If I Only Had Space,” which also included Hall.
• Danzig also won first place in business and economic writing for a story charting the history of Hoboken’s bar industry.
The award-winning articles can all be found on the Reporter’s website (www.hudsonreporter.com). See sidebar for specific information on how to find them.
The awards will be presented in a banquet in Princeton on April 26.
Reporter Editor-in-Chief Caren Lissner said the awards represented the high level of dedication and concern the staff puts into its work.
“The awards, particularly the ones for some of the investigative stories we did last year, remind us how integral a local newspaper is in keeping the community informed about issues that will affect them but that they might otherwise not know about until it’s too late,” Lissner said. “The articles on development, rent control and the Keystone contamination all had a great impact on their communities.”
Lissner and Senior Staff Writer Al Sullivan noted that all of the departments at the Reporter contributed to the awards. Sullivan said, “The most impressive thing about these newspaper awards is the amazing amount of talent the staff of the Hudson Reporter has. Every position in the paper seems to have the ability to do award-winning work, and often, these people do not get the public’s acknowledgement. These awards give them the credit they deserve, not just for these [articles] but for the layout, writing and sales they do all year long.”
“The whole company works hard to produce a quality product and it is gratifying to be recognized within the industry,” said David Unger, co-publisher of Hudson Reporter. “We’re very proud of the award-winners and the staff as a whole.” The Hudson Reporter chain, based in Hoboken, publishes eight newspapers: The Hoboken Reporter, The Jersey City Reporter, the Secaucus Reporter, the Union City Reporter, the West New York Reporter, the Weehawken Reporter, the North Bergen Reporter and the Current, an arts and entertainment weekly. They can all be found on the web by clicking www.hudsonreporter.com.
The winners on the web To read the winning newspaper articles:
• Go to www.hudsonreporter.com. Click the newspaper in which the article appeared (see below).
• Underneath the “news search” box, click “advanced search.”
• Input the title or date of the piece in the data fields provided.
Hoboken Reporter:
“Despite confusion, rent control measure up for final vote Wednesday,” Feb. 13, 2000.
“Dryer times,” Oct. 1, 2000.
Jersey City Reporter:
“Developer has mixed record,” Nov. 19, 2000.
Secaucus Reporter:
“Uncovering the Jewish past,” Oct. 8, 2000.
“The big cleanup,” May 14, 2000.