Gazette wins more than 40 awards in 2023 Iowa Newspaper Association competition

The Gazette was recognized with a total of 43 individual and staff awards at the annual Iowa Newspaper Association Convention in Des Moines.

In total, The Gazette won 14 first-place, eight second-place and 17 third-place awards in a competition that is meant to recognize the best journalism in Iowa.

The Gazette tied for first place in General Excellence with the Dubuque Telegraph Herald among large daily newspapers across the state.

Reporters Erin Jordan and Emily Andersen were honored with the Skip Weber Investigative Reporting Award for their reporting on in-custody inmate deaths at the Linn County Jail.

Vanessa Miller was honored with the Ken Fuson Best Writing Award for her story about a family of four from Tiffin that went through surrogacy in unprecedented circumstances because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The award recognizes the best writing across all contest entries.

Education reporter Grace King was honored as an Outstanding Young Iowa Journalist, an award given to reporters under 30 for their overall work.

Local government reporter Marissa Payne was recognized as the recipient of the Jay P. Wagner Prize for Young Journalists for her overall coverage of local government. The award’s namesake was a local reporter from the N’West Iowa Review.

The awards were presented Thursday night during a banquet in Des Moines. The contest, which had more than 2,500 entries across the categories, was judged by members of the North Carolina Press Association. Entries in the contest were published between Oct. 1, 2021 and Sept. 30, 2022.

Additional recognitions included:

First place — News Feature Photo by photographer Nick Rohlman, Best Photo Story by photographer Geoff Stellfox; Best News Story by Erin Jordan and Emily Andersen; Bill Monroe Digital Project Award for the Little Mexico Project in Cedar Rapids; Best Front Page; Best Features Page; Coverage of Business; Best Website; Best Podcast for Hawk Off The Press by John Steppe and produced by Nathan Ford. The Gazette was also recognized for Best Ad Featuring a Community Promotion, Best Web Ad, Best Ad Featuring Agricultural Products and Best Ad Series or Campaign Featuring Any Service or Merchandise.

Second place — Coverage of Agriculture, Newspaper Design, Use of Headlines, Use of Social Media, Sports Feature Story by Jeff Linder, news feature photo by Stellfox; Best Photographer — Rohlman. The Gazette also was recognized for best web ad.

Third place — Editorial Page; Overall Sports Section; Coverage of Government; Coverage of Education; Use of Graphics; Best Video by Bailey Cichon; Best News Story by reporter Elijah Decious; Jeff Linder for Sports Feature Story; Editorial Writing; News Photo and Sports Feature Photo by Jim Slosiarek; Photo Story by Stellfox. The Gazette was also recognized for Ads Featuring Automotive; Ad Series or Campaign Featuring Any Service or Merchandise; Ad for Community Promotion; and Best In Class Advertising.