Writers and graphic artists for The Hudson Reporter newspapers recently won a total of 17 awards in the competitive statewide annual Memorial Journalism Contest run by the Garden State Journalists Association.
The company, with offices in Hoboken and Bayonne, publishes eight weekly newspapers: The Hoboken Reporter, Bayonne Community News, Weehawken Reporter, Jersey City Reporter, Secaucus Reporter, North Bergen Reporter, Union City Reporter, West New York Reporter. The company also publishes lifestyle magazines for Hoboken, Jersey City, and Bayonne – 07030, Jersey City Magazine, and Bayonne Magazine – whose writers and artists were among the award winners.
Online versions of the publications appear at www.hudsonreporter.com.
In the GSJA contest, the Reporter papers competed with publications in all 21 counties in New Jersey.
The chain’s two co-publishers, Lucha Malato and Dave Unger, congratulated the winners. “It’s always gratifying when the hard work of our dedicated professionals is honored by their peers,” Unger said.
Graphics awards
Senior Graphics Artist Lisa M. Cuthbert received three awards. In the Layout-Weekly Paper category, she won second place for “Hoboken’s Booting Policy,” and third place for “Sports, Arts, Fun,” both in The Hoboken Reporter. She also took second place in the Feature Story Magazine Layout category for “Falcon Fiends” in Jersey City Magazine.
“This has been such a successful year for my colleagues and me,” Cuthbert said. “We received numerous awards from the New Jersey Press Association and now the Garden State Journalists Association. It’s fantastic and such an accomplishment. Congratulations to all!”
For Layout: Magazine Front Cover, first place was awarded to Terriann Saulino Bish and Alyssa Bredin for the Summer 2014 edition of 07030 Hoboken Magazine.
Journalism awards
The company’s reporters and freelance writers were awarded 13 prizes for writing and photo-journalistic achievement, in a wide range of categories. In the Spot News category, Senior Staff Writer Al Sullivan was awarded first place for “A City on Edge” in The Jersey Reporter, about the ambush murder of Jersey City Police Officer Melvin Santiago in July 2014 and the growing tensions in the city.
For Investigative Reporting, Sullivan shared a second place award with Kate Rounds for a Jersey City Reporter story, “Without Notice, NJ Transit Cuts Time Light Rail Ticket is Valid.”
“Editor Kate Rounds noticed the time for a ticket on the Hudson Bergen Light Rail line had been reduced from 90 minutes to 60 minutes without NJ Transit informing anyone,” Sullivan said. “The story also investigated whether it was possible to actually go from one end of the rail system to the other in the newly allotted time.”
The reporters won awards for features as well, both in the magazines and in the newspapers.
In the feature category, freelancer Amanda Staab was awarded first place for her cover story in Hoboken 07030 Magazine, “What Henk Ovink Thinks.”
“Henk Ovink is the Dutch water expert who is senior advisor to U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan,” explained Kate Rounds, the magazine’s editor. “President Obama put Donovan in charge of the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force. Ovink travelled to Hoboken to talk with Staab about how, in the future, Hoboken and other Hudson County towns could avoid the enormous devastation like that caused by Hurricane Sandy.”
Editor-in-Chief Caren Matzner also won an award for a magazine piece, for her cover story profiling Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop for Jersey City Magazine, “Mayor Steve Gets Up Close and Personal.”
“I got to show a more personal side of Mayor Fulop, who may be the Democratic nominee for governor in the future,” Matzner said.
As far as newspaper features went, Sullivan won second place for a memorable story, “On a Mission from God,” a Bayonne man’s effort to rescue a murder victim’s gravestone that he found in the muddy Meadowlands.
Sullivan was awarded first place in the Business Financial category for a Jersey City Reporter story, “A Sandwich of Their Own,” about the founding of the first Blimpie stores in Hoboken and Jersey City and the return of the founder to the old neighborhood 50 years later.
In the Science, Health, Education category, second place was awarded to Staff Writer Art Schwartz for a story in the Union City Reporter, “Brain Surgery … While Awake?”
“A woman in Union City underwent invasive brain surgery while fully awake,” Schwartz explained. “After suffering a seizure she was misdiagnosed as having had a stroke. A specialist then informed her she had a brain tumor, and he performed the surgery. Because of the delicate nature of the operation, the patient needs to be awake in order to monitor her physical reactions.”
In the Series category, 3rd place was given to Sullivan, Carlo Davis, and Schwartz for a Jersey City Reporter story, “‘Gay American’ Speech was 10 Years Ago.”
“The announcement of being gay and eventual resignation of Gov. Jim McGreevey was a historic and possibly watershed moment,” Sullivan explained. “The story and its sidebars talked to McGreevey and others about what that moment meant then and what it meant a decade later.”
These awards are not the first for the chain. Several reporters won honors in February from the prestigious New Jersey Press Association for investigative reporting and features — with topics ranging from Hoboken’s history of vote-by-mail schemes to Hudson County’s houses of worship. (See hudsonreporter.com for those articles.)
“It takes a lot of work to track down information and ignore the political pressure from all sides when putting together these investigative pieces, and it also takes work to draw in readers in with fun features to lighten things up. I’m very pleased with the diversity of the awards that the graphic artists and writers took home,” Matzner said.
Photography awards
Staff Writer Joseph Passantino won first place in the Photography Sports Action category for “Almost There,” a photo in the Bayonne Community News of the closing seconds of a scholastic wrestling tournament match.
“I could see that one wrestler was close to victory, so I focused on the referee’s body language to help me catch the wrestler’s pin and win,” Passantino said.
For Photography Spot News, Passantino won second place for his “North Bergen Man Involved in Deadly Crash” photo with a breaking news story on hudsonreporter.com about a three-vehicle collision on Route 78.
“Photography is all about being ready for the shot,” Passantino said. “I was stopped in traffic after the accident which had just occurred and caught the moment when fuel from a tanker truck on fire sparked an explosion.”
Matzner won two awards in the Photo Story-Essay category. One was a photo essay about handwritten signs among neighbors in Hoboken (“Signs of the City”), and one explored a nature trail in the Meadowlands (“The Trail Behind the Stores”).
“I enjoyed doing the photo essays because I’ve always loved capturing a story with my camera, even though it’s not my area of expertise,” Matzner said. “My first place was part of a long running series on handmade signs and notes from people I have found around Hoboken. I’m fascinated with what signs tell us about a community. For my second place, I was amazed when I saw there was a great nature trail hidden behind a department store parking lot. My reporter’s curiosity got the best of me.”
In the Lifestyle Travel category, former Hoboken Reporter writer Amanda Palasciano was awarded third place for an article she wrote on the local blog Life in Hoboken.com, titled “Bravo Otto Strada, Bravo.”
Awards dinner
Michael Aron, chief political correspondent at NJTV News and a journalist since 1970, will be the keynote speaker at the 68th Annual Memorial Journalism Awards Dinner, Wednesday, May 20, at The Chart House, Weehawken.