Times in winners’ circle

Rob Dump Randolph Times

LINCOLN — The Randolph Times won a trio of awards and Editor Trisha Benton played a big part in several other awards won by Northeast Nebraska News Company newspapers during Saturday’s annual Nebraska Press Association Better Newspaper Contest.

The contest was part of the Nebraska Press Association’s 151st annual convention.

Benton earned a first-place plaque for a story by Benton and Mark Mahoney about the issues rural residents are having with garbage collection.

Benton also earned a third-place plaque for articles about the sports coop between Randolph and Osmond.

Darin Epperly’s photos from a dance studio recital in Randolph also earned a third-place plaque.

Three other Northeast Nebraska News Company newspapers also earned honors at the convention The Wausa Gazette earned a firstplace plaque for reporting after a wind storm whipped through Wausa severely damaging several buildings and trees and causing extensive damage to Gladstone Park. The Gazette also earned a second-place plaque for its headline writing.

The Osmond Republican was awarded a second-place plaque for a feature series by Editor Regina Lorenz’s series about Osmond area veterans.

The Cedar County News was named as one of the top weekly newspapers in the state Saturday during the Nebraska Press Association annual convention at the Cornhusker Hotel.

The News won 21 awards to claim the sweepstakes award for its circulation category. The News competes in the second largest category for weeklies This year’s annual Better Newspaper Contest feature 2,569 separate entries judged by members of the South Carolina Press Association.

The Hartington-based newspaper took third place in the overall sweepstakes competition, which pits all weekly newspapers — regardless of size — against each other.

Two Cedar County News staffers also earned special recognition on the night.

News photographer Jeremy Buss was honored for taking the Feature Photo of the Year - the top feature photo published in 2023 in any sized weekly or daily newspaper in the state.

The photo was taken last summer during swimming lessons at the Hartington Municipal Swimming Pool.

Cedar County News Editor Rob Dump was honored for penning the Editorial of the Year, the best editorial published in 2023 in any sized weekly or daily newspaper in the state.

Dump’s editorial was written to draw readers’ attention to National Newspaper Week. The editorial talked about the challenges all small town businesses face, and the unique challenges the newspaper industry is facing today. He also won a first place award in the Class C division for his editorial writing as a whole.

The newspaper’s editorial page earned a second-place plaque. The page features local editorials and columns by publishers Rob Dump and Peggy Year, as well as local or state editorial cartoons and a history column by Roger Tryon.

In all, the Cedar County News won 11 firstplace plaques, five-second place awards and five third-place awards.

The News also won first place awards for:

• Peggy Year: Best Small Ad

• Darin Epperly: Best sports photo. That photo was taken during a rainy, muddy football game between Cedar Catholic and Ponca.

• Trisha Benton: Best In Depth Reporting for a series of stories she wrote about the mounting costs for a quadruple murder trial.

• Special sections - Ag Today.

• Best sports section

• Best use of color

• Best Computer graphics The News also garnered second place for:

• Darin Epperly: Sports action photo. That photo was taken during a Hartington-Newcastle/ Plainview football game.

• Advertising campaign: The Anderson and Anderson Good Old Days ads were recognized for demonstrating how the company prides itself in delivering good old fashioned service to its customers.

• Best Youth Coverage. This award recognized the annual student awards section the News publishes, as well as the Gov. Charles Thone Leadership and the Joan Burney Communicator of the Year awards.

• Sports writer Mike Renning earned an award for his sports feature story about siblings competing for various state titles.

The News earned third-place plaques for:

• A Cedar County Fair photo page by Jeremy Buss.

• A sports action photo by Buss of a HNS hurdler in action.

• Headline writing.

• Trisha Benton also received a third-place award for her coverage of a quadruple murder.