Tue, 10/23/2018 - 1:00pm

A photo of Camden Police Sgt. Dan Brown and a baby calf in the back of the cruiser took second place in the MPA Better Newspaper Contest, 2018, People Photo category.

The Penobscot Bay Pilot (penbaypilot.com) took home a variety of first, second, third, special project and business initiative awards in the Weekly 2 category (weekly newspapers with a circulation of more than 4,000, and digital-only news sites) at the annual Maine Press Association Conference at Sunday River, in Newry, Oct. 20. The Pilot, as well as its sister media Boothbay Register and Wiscasset Newspaper, were cited for their work, and the Pilot took home second place in the Weekly 2 category for general excellence digital for its website.

The annual conference draws staff and publishers of Maine’s dailies, weeklies and online news sites for a weekend of talking shop and recharging batteries with other journalists. This year, 34 publications submitted a total of 1,444 contest entries across all categories for the annual 2018 Better Newspaper Contest.

Keynote speaker this year was Maine’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Leigh Saufley, who focused on two current initiatives of the Maine judicial branch: a wraparound court — family treatment drug court — and moving court filings and documents online for public use.

The annual conference, with its workshops on libel, copyright, photo editing across different platforms, copyediting, revenue growth, and establishing safe work places and strategies, also honored inductees to the Maine Press Hall of Fame, and concluded with the annual awards banquet.

This year, Nat Barrows, publisher of the Blue Hill Packet, Island Advantages and Castine Patriot, as well as Winifred French, founder of The Quoddy Tides, and Kathryn Olmstead, longtime writer, editor and teacher, were all honored as new members of the Hall of Fame.

At the conference, J.W. Oliver, editor of the Lincoln County News, in Damariscotta, was designated the 2018 Journalist of the Year.

The York Weekly earned first place for general excellence print in the Weekly One category, which The Ellsworth American earned that placement in the Weekly 2 category. The Bangor Daily News took first place for that award in the daily category.

CentralMaine.com earned first place for digital general excellence, as did The Republican Journal and Lincoln County News.

The Pilot awards are as follows:

Eva Murray, First Place, Opinion Columnist, for her piece, Maine, where it’s perfectly normal to be self employed. Judges wrote, “thoughtful messages that lead to a strong point in the end.”

Diane O’Brien tied for third place in the Local Columnist category for her piece, This Week in Lincolnville: Friggin’ Old Man. The judge, who also referenced another column in Lincoln County News, wrote, “both of these columns touched my heart.”

Erica Thoms earned second place for her Continuing Story, State Investigation into Marissa Kennedy’s death. Judges wrote, “another ongoing heartbreaking series of stories about a death and tragedy. Good reporting.”

George Harvey earned second place Sports News Story, for his coverage, Camden Hills tabs Marks to lead football, with judges remarking: “Good report on new football assigned to return team to varsity status. Both sources provided good quotes. Appreciated background on history of program.”

Sarah Thompson and Lynda Clancy earned first place for a Special Online Project, for Making waves across Penobscot Bay: LifeFlight’s annual Islesboro Crossing beats fundraising record. Judges wrote: “This story lends itself to online publication. A compelling narrative and room for lots of pictures.”

Janis Bunting, Kipp Wright and Lynda Clancy earned first place for Best New Revenue Idea with the Pilot’s Supporter Program. “I like the flow of the ad,” wrote one judge. “It’s a great idea to ask the community to support journalism.”

Lynda Clancy earned first place for the Game Story, Fleet of foot, Islesboro teen flies over winter, and the world, on snowshoes. “Very interesting story, and well written.”

Clancy earned second place in the Investigative Report category for the story, Citizens appeal to Camden, Rockport select boards about school bond process. “There is a lot of information here and for those in the affected communities you have done a great service of documenting and explaining what is happening. I’m sure this ongoing investigation is keeping your readers engaged and informed. Job well done!”

She earned second place with her photo of Camden Police Dept. Sg. Dan Brown and the baby calf he helped into the back of the police cruiser, with the story, Wandering cow calves in Camden woods, helped home by police after long night. The judge wrote: “Love how the officer’s emotions can be seen. Heartwarming photo.”

She earned third place for a Picture Story, Hiking Katahdin, one foot and handhold at a time. “Gives the reader good insight on what to expect during a trip to Katahdin, Beautiful scenery captured.”

And, Clancy won second place for feature headline: Camden first responders apply just the right pressure to save boy’s life.

The Boothbay Register and Wiscasset Newspaper received 15 awards in the Weekly 1 division.

Reporter Bill Pearson won two first place and one second place certificates. He won for his sports news story, “Late Winthrop 3-pointer knocks Boothbay out of Class C tourney” and for his education story, “Edgecomb boarding school making a big impact.” He took second place for his news-sports headline, “Seahawk senior ‘Ames’ for another successful season.” The judge said Pearson’s sports news story was an “excellent piece of writing” and the judge said of his education story on the Deck House school in Edgecomb, a “very interesting look at the school and what it offers.”

Wiscasset Reporter and Assistant Editor Susan Johns took first place in the news video category, second place in a courts story and third place in a feature story. The judge said of her video on “Rescued dogs arrive in Woolwich:” “A nice short news clip to go along with the paper. It’s a good use of the website.” Johns’ courts story was “Detective: Accused murderer claims she found the child unresponsive in the bathroom” and her feature story was “Sara’s scarecrow.”

Wiscasset Reporter Gina Hamilton took first place for her arts-lifestyle feature, “Shelter dogs graduate from jail training program” and third place for her investigative report, “‘Powerless’: CMP billing leaves customers with questions.” The judge said of her winning feature, “Great topic, really to the point and fun to read.”

Other individual awards were given to reporter Joseph Charpentier (second place critic’s award for “‘It’ floats), photographer Steve Edwards (third place scenic photo for “The sun comes up”), arts and entertainment editor Lisa Kristoff (third place critic’s award for “A rockin’ good read for music fans) and editor Kevin Burnham (third place education story for “Toby LeConte receives Rotary’s 2017 Lifetime Service Award).

The staff won three awards: second place for best circulation promotion (“Morning Catch); third place for general excellence-digital (website) and third place supplement/special section (Windjammer Days).