News-Register wins 15 awards in state competition

The News-Register picked up 14 individual awards, including for news and feature stories, editorials, headlines and web operations, in the Oregon Newspaper Publishers’ Association 2015 Better Newspaper Contest.

It claimed five firsts in the non-daily division, competing against newspapers from around the state. It also picked up six seconds and three thirds.

The paper also claimed second-place honors in the multi-day weekly division for general excellence, a measure of its overall quality, as judged by out-of-state peers. The award, announced Friday at the association’s annual conference, is based on submission of editions from date ranges specified by the contest organizers.

The N-R’s editorial section, Viewpoints, won first place in the editorial page category. Editor Ossie Bladine, Managing Editor Steve Bagwell and editorial assistant Marna Porath produce the weekly section, which appears in the Friday edition.

The staff as a whole claimed firsts in special sections for its Green Living quarterly, edited by Racheal Winter, and the design of its website, managed by Dan Shryock. Winter also took top honors in headline writing for a selection of her work.

Reporter Starla Pointer placed first in the personality profile category for “The Final Flight,” a story about the life and death of Evergreen founder Del Smith. She also earned third place honors in educational coverage for a story about a Latin course at Linfield College.

Sports Editor Robert Husseman took second in sportswriting for an entry titled, “What Dreams May Come.” Reporter Tom Henderson claimed second in enterprise reporting for a story about the county’s juvenile detention center. And Karl Klooster, who has since retired, won seconds in the personality profile category for “Tall Tales Ring True” and headline writing for a selection of work.

Columnist Nathalie Hardy placed second in column writing for “Raising the Hardy Boys.” Publisher Jeb Bladine placed third in the category for his weekly “Whatchama” column, which appears in Viewpoints.

In addition, the N-R claimed second place honors for its website. And Bagwell placed third in the editorial writing, based on a selection of work.