Cabinet wins awards

Thursday, February 16, 2012

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BOSTON – The Cabinet took three awards, including second-place in the General Excellence category, in the annual New England Newspaper and Press Association convention last weekend.

In awarding second place to The Cabinet, judges wrote, “A well-designed newspaper with strong front page stories. This paper was redesigned during the time that lapsed between the publication of the two issues submitted to the contest.

“The redesigned version makes a much better use of photographs, in color as well as black and white. No doubt, this newspaper knows how to pick the stories that should be played up. Political and government stories explain the candidates and the issues well.”

The Cabinet also took third place for the design of its Living Page and third place for Community Involvement for its special publication about local heroes.

The Cabinet’s sister publication, the daily Telegraph of Nashua, took five first-place awards and a number of others.

The staff of The Telegraph took top honors for Government Reporting for its seven-day examination of double dippers – public employees who returned to government jobs while collecting a full pension from the state Retirement System.

“Excellent dogged effort to expose the large amount of double dipping that goes on by state and municipal retirees returning to public service and using loopholes to double dip,” the judges wrote. “This 7-day package was total team coverage by writers, designers, editors and photographers ... The Telegraph makes it simple for readers to read and digest.”

Telegraph editorial page editor Nick Pappas won first place for Editorial Writing.

“Not afraid to take a strong stand on an issue on which their readers are likely to disagree – editorials are well-written,” the judges wrote.

Chief photographer Don Himsel was awarded first place in Video for “Ice House.”

“Beautifully shot – creative and engaging framing without feeling arty or drawing attention to the artist’s decisions,” the judges said.

“Good use of the narrator, whose authentic voice tells a compelling story. Pacing and length feel absolutely right for the subject.”

Telegraph Metro Editor and former education reporter Michael Brindley received top honors in the Special Award category for his series of articles on the state of education, which culminated in a community roundtable discussion about education reform.

Chief copy editor Sandy Bucknam won first place for Community Involvement for running the newspaper’s high school columnist program.

“A wonderful way to get students involved with journalism,” the judges wrote. “Stories were varied and well-written.”

Other awards included:

• Second place for Crime and Court Reporting for The Telegraph’s coverage of the trails of Steven Spader and Christopher Gribble.

• Second place for Right-to-Know for its week-long series for Sunshine week, held each year in March.

• Second place for Spot News for the staff’s coverage of the fresh murder charges in a decades old Nashua homicide.

• Second place to Don Himsel for a slideshow.

• Second and third place to Vanessa Palange for Infographics – front page designs that combine information and illustration.

• Third place for Business and Economic Reporting for “Hard times: Then vs. Now,” an examination of the current recession to the one of the early ’90s.

• Third place for the design of its Living Page.

• Third place for Overall Website.

The Telegraph competes against other New England newspapers with daily circulation less than 30,000.

In addition, Jennifer Keefe, editor of LobbyNH.com, a sister publication of The Telegraph, took home four awards for her work during her tenure at Foster’s Daily Democrat. Her awards included first place for Environmental Reporting, second place for Personality Profile and third place for Human Interest Feature Story. Her fourth award was another first place prize for General News Story, which she shared with three other reporters.

Another one of The Telegraph’s sister publications, New Hampshire Business Review, won first place for General Excellence in the Biweekly/Monthly category.