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The Reporter, Times/Review rock press association prizes

BEVERLEA WALZ PHOTO | We've arrived. This Reporter cover photo was a prize winner at the New York Press Association spring convention . The Reporter and TimesReview Newspapers had a winning weekend in Saratoga Springs.
BEVERLEA WALZ PHOTO | We’ve arrived. This Reporter cover photo was a prize winner at the New York Press Association’s spring convention. The Reporter and TimesReview Newspapers had a winning weekend in Saratoga Springs.

Your hometown paper has been honored for excellence by the New York Press Association.

The Reporter brought home six journalism awards from NYPA’s spring convention — including top prizes in three categories — this past weekend at the Gideon Putnam Resort and Spa in Saratoga Springs.

And Times/Review Newsgroup, which includes the Reporter’s sister papers, The Suffolk Times and The News-Review, topped all other newspaper groups in the state for total wins at Saratoga.

The News-Review received the Stuart C. Dorman Award for overall editorial excellence, and The Suffolk Times picked up first place honors for general excellence.

The 2013 NYPA entries were judged by the Pennsylvania Press Association, just as NYPA members volunteer to judge other states’ entries in their competitions.

“We are incredibly proud of the award-winning work produced by the Reporter staff,” Times/Review Publisher Andrew Olsen said.  “Ambrose Clancy, in his role as editor, has a wonderful team in place that was recognized to be among the best in New York State.  Not only were we recognized for editorial and advertising excellence, but also for community leadership, which is central to our mission.”

Mr. Olsen was speaking about one of the most prestigious awards that NYPA bestows, which went to Staff Reporter Julie Lane for her multi-part series on the serious problems of postal delivery on the Island. Ms. Lane’s series took first place over every newspaper in the association, winning the Sharon R. Fulmer Award for Community Leadership.

“This issue is so core to a community’s needs and the coverage demonstrates a newspaper’s ability to have a major impact …” the citation from the judges read.

The award comes with a $500 stipend the writer can donate to the charity of her choice. Julie has chosen to split the stipend between the Shelter Island Educational Foundation and the Shelter Island Ambulance Foundation.

But Ms. Lane wasn’t through. She was also honored with another first place prize, this one for Best News or Feature series. Her three part series on Dering Harbor prompted the judges to write: “This series takes a sophisticated, well-researched look at prickly issues in the state’s smallest hamlet, with a quality of journalism more typically directed at major urban issues. A complete surprise and utter delight.”

Ms. Lane also won a third place award for feature writing for “From Russia with love,” a profile of a college student and part-time Island resident who began life in a Russian orphanage.

Editor Ambrose Clancy won a first place NYPA award for feature writing for a story on two Islanders who were dead center at the horrific Boston Marathon bombings.

“The article drew me in immediately and held my attention throughout the entire piece,” the judges wrote. “This is a fine example of what a feature should be … Outstanding job.”

It wasn’t just words that NYPA recognized and honored from the Reporter’s pages. Both free lance photographer Eleanor Labrozzi and Staff Photographer Beverlea Walz took home prizes in photography categories.

Ms. Labrozzi won second place for Picture Story titled “Autumn Glory,” with three pictures chosen by Community News Editor Jo Ann Kirkland to grace the first page of Around the Island. “Wow, what stunning photography,” the judges raved, “The photographer depicted the consummate beauty of the season.”

Ms. Walz’s prize was a third place finish for “A Midsummer’s Night Dream,” a cover photo of Shakespearean actors arriving by boat for a performance at Sylvester Manor.

“A curious moment,” a judge wrote. “Who are these people? I judged several great images that focused divergent elements coming together that only cameras highlight so well.”

Congratulations to all.