The Hudson Reporter chain of newspapers took several statewide awards in the New Jersey Press Association’s annual newspaper contest last week, and Senior Staff Writer Al Sullivan won the highest honor, weekly Journalist of the Year.
The Reporter chain includes papers in Hoboken, Jersey City, North Bergen, Secaucus, Union City, West New York, and Weehawken, as well as the Hudson Current, a midweek arts and entertainment paper. The papers can be found at www.hudsonreporter.com.
The NJPA announced Monday that Sullivan, who covers Secaucus and county government for the Reporter, had won. The Reporter submitted a packet of 10 of Sullivan’s articles from 2001, including Sullivan’s coverage of the investigation into former County Executive Robert Janiszewski, which appeared in all the papers, and an investigative story regarding drinking in the volunteer firehouses in Secaucus, which resulted in changes to the drug and alcohol policies for firefighters in that town.
In individual writing categories, several staff members took statewide honors. Most notably, Hoboken beat reporter Tom Jennemann won first place in the investigative “Enterprise” category for his ardent coverage of the conditions and politics surrounding the Hoboken Housing Authority projects. There are 1,353 federally-subsidized units in the projects.
Sullivan also won first place in the “First Amendment Award” category, which recognizes stories that use government access to public records to uncover potentially hidden government actions. For that category, he submitted three articles regarding questions about why a certain vendor received a lot of business from Secaucus. He also won a second place award for environmental writing.
JoAnne Steglitz, the editor of the Hudson Current (www.hudsoncurrent.com), which comes out Thursdays, won second place in features for “Sassy Senior Serves up the Sauce,” a profile of Johanna Wall, the owner of Hoboken’s Shannon Lounge.
Writer Eugene Mulero earned third place in the arts and entertainment category for a two-part series in which he probed the bar scene in Hoboken and Jersey City.
The Current’s columnist, Chris Halleron, won second place for column writing for his biweekly column, “Hal Wastes His Wages,” in which he details, every other week, how he squandered $50 at local establishments.
Speech at state banquet
The awards will be distributed at an annual banquet in Princeton in April that is attended by dozens of daily and weekly newspapers across the state. Sullivan, as weekly Journalist of the Year, will give a speech. The other speaker will be Mike Kelly of the Bergen Record, who is the Reporter of the Year on the daily side.
Reporter Co-Publisher David Unger said last week, “It’s gratifying to be recognized by our industry peers for all our hard work.” Of Sullivan, he said, “Al has a real passion for journalism that comes through in his work.”
“I know the entire staff is dedicated and works tirelessly to make our newspapers the best possible,” said the paper’s other co-publisher, Lucha Malato. “It is wonderful to have these accomplishments acknowledged by others. It makes me very proud of both our staff and our product.”
Reporter Editor-in-Chief Caren Lissner said, “We usually only get feedback on political articles, but the awards remind everyone that there are many issues in Hudson County that need dogged exploration. We have a staff that works hard and conveys the results creatively and comprehensively. Some of these stories resulted in policy changes and increased awareness.”
Lissner also commended the beat reporting team of Christine Nardone, Prescott Tolk, Jennemann, and Sullivan on their all-day Sept. 11 coverage. “They raced to the waterfront in the morning and stayed there all day,” Lissner said. “They did valiant reporting that day.”
The judges who chose Sullivan commented that his reporting was “fair, accurate and thorough.”
They said Sullivan “appears to have a great deal of courage in taking on people and subjects that are apt to make enemies. Hudson County and the Hudson Reporter are better because of this gifted and courageous writer.”
Lissner noted that investigative stories sometimes come out of readers’ ideas. “The newspaper works best when people are communicating with us,” she said. “Some of our stories have come from readers calling us about something they thought was strange, and we dug into it.” People with questions or ideas should call (201) 798-7800 x403 during business hours.
The winning stories can be found in the Reporter’s on-line archives by going to the newspaper in question on www.hudsonreporter.com, clicking directly on the words “advanced search,” and filling in the relevant fields.
Super scribe
Al Sullivan has covered Secaucus for the Hudson Reporter chain since 1992, and has also covered county government for the last two years.
Sullivan, 50, grew up in the Clifton/Paterson area. He moved to Hoboken with his wife in 1992, and they relocated to Jersey City in 1998.
Sullivan made his foray into journalism by freelancing for the now-defunct weekly Independent Prospector in Clifton in 1979. Since then, he worked for the Paterson News, a daily, and the Today Newspapers out of Butler. Like many on the Reporter’s staff, Sullivan has pursued other genres of writing on the side: novels, plays, poetry, essays, and songs.
Last year, his efforts in journalism were rewarded when Rutgers University Press published a book of his Reporter profiles, “Everyday People.” That book is available on www.amazon.com, www.bn.com, www.walmart.com, and www.rutgerspress.rutgers.edu.
Of the award, Sullivan said last week, “I feel honored and stunned. But I think it has always been a team effort. Other people are always involved in the end product.”
On Sullivan’s work, a contest judge commented that reporters have to “write in such a way as to hold reader interest to the very end. They must be tough and compassionate. Al Sullivan appears to be a person who regularly demonstrates these qualities in his work.”
Presently, Sullivan is finishing up a novel about “the dark side of Paterson.” Sullivan said, “It’s not autobiographical, but it’s based loosely experiences I had on the streets of Paterson in the 1980s.” He’s also working on a non-fiction book about Cape May.