Shelter Island Reporter scores with prizes in national newspaper contest

Your hometown paper has been honored by a nation-wide press association, awarded prestigious prizes in the categories of column and feature writing.

In the National Newspaper Association Foundation’s NNAF’s Better Newspaper Contest, editor Ambrose Clancy took the top prize in the Reporter’s circulation division for columns, as well as second and third place for features.

There were 602 awards won by 92 newspapers across 33 states in the NNAF’s annual competition of editorial excellence.

The judges singled out a column by Mr. Clancy, “An Anniversary,” published in February 2022, about a life-changing decision he had made. The NNAF judge wrote, on awarding the first place prize: “I went back several times to review the entries that I had scored the highest, and this one always came out on top. It is well written and does an excellent job of telling a compelling story … I congratulate the writer for a job well done.”

Mr. Clancy took a second place prize in feature writing for a story about Shelter Island’s “Meals On Wheels” and senior nutrition program, which ran right before  Thanksgiving. Headlined “Working to bring food, friendship and comfort,” the judge noted the story is a “great way to bring attention to behind the scenes of a program that many may be loosely aware of, but perhaps not its importance.”

Third place for features went to Mr. Clancy for “Dignity and Respect at Calverton National,” published before Memorial Day weekend, which the judge said is a  “Poetically written story — kudos!”

Congratulations to Mr. Clancy, and all his colleagues in the editorial, advertising and art departments of the paper. And most of all, thanks to the Reporter’s readers and advertisers, who support and inspire us, week in and week out.