Post-Crescent wins five first-place awards, 10 total awards in state newspaper contest
Larry GallupThe Post-Crescent won five first-place awards and 10 total awards Friday in the 2020 Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation Better Newspaper Contest.
All of the awards were in Division A, for the state's largest newspapers.
The winners:
- Madeline Heim for coverage of the coronavirus pandemic
- Duke Behnke for feature story (profile) about a Harrison man who regrets not taking coronavirus precautions seriously
- Maureen Wallenfang for business coverage
- Bill Glasheen for spot news photo, from the scene when bars reopened after the state Supreme Court struck down coronavirus restrictions
- Brett Christopherson, Jim Rosandick, Ricardo Arguello and Glasheen for visual storytelling, through the Clubhouse Live livestreamed series
In other awards:
- Behnke took second place for reporting on local government.
- Glasheen took third place for general news photo and honorable mention for photo essay.
- Dan Powers took third place for photo essay.
- Christopherson, Rosandick and Arguello took third place for visual storytelling, through the Varsity Game of the Week livestreams.
“It’s been a time like no other — COVID-19, a bitter election. Through it all, our journalists have been focused on serving their local communities with essential facts and information,” said James Fitzhenry, executive editor for USA TODAY NETWORK-Central Wisconsin.
The news organization, comprised of 10 daily newspapers and three weeklies in central and northeastern Wisconsin, received 85 awards in the contest, including 26 first-place winners. The 2020 contest had 2,051 entries from 103 newspapers.
“What I’m most proud of is that many of the awards recognized coverage of the pandemic, which continues to have an enormous impact on our communities,” Fitzhenry said.
Contact Larry Gallup at (920) 996-7216 or lgallup@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @LarryGallup.