The Alamance News was a big winner in the National Newspaper Association’s “Better Newspaper Contest,” an annual writing and reporting contest sponsored for member newspapers across the country.
The awards were announced during the association’s annual convention, held last week in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The Alamance News added 11 national honors – to go with 17 state ones announced last month by the North Carolina Press Association. The NNA awards covered the time period of calendar year 2024, while the state contest period ran from April 1, 2024 through March 31, 2025.
All of the national awards were for individual reporters’ stories, while some of the state awards were for the comprehensive editions of the newspaper itself.
The highest honor went to veteran staff writer Tomas Murawski, a first place award for coverage of public corruption about the two county tax office employees who were fired after it was discovered that they had altered property valuations to substitute more favorable (i.e., lower) valuations for themselves and/or relatives.
Through its public records request to the county, the newspaper was able to obtain a detailed description of why they were fired.
The contest judges credited Murawski with a balanced and well-written story. The judges’ comments were: “This is an interesting and well-written piece! You balanced the two sides of the story very well; as for feedback, I would note there are a couple of time the story mentioned someone’s characters – quotes might reinforce those a little more objectively. But that’s a slight criticism.”
Staff writer Kristy Bailey won two second place awards, for best localized national story about the school board’s adoption of LGBTQ changes recommended by the Biden Administration’s Department of Education and a profile feature on superior court judge Doug Green.
On the school board’s adoption of the Title IX changes, the judges said, “Detailed story of why a [school board] voted the way they did. Well written.”
With regard to the profile feature on Green, the judges said, “Thorough story telling of a pillar of the community focusing on all he holds dear. Well done interview and presentation.”
Editor and Publisher Tom Boney, Jr. also won two second place awards, both stemming from his coverage of the Mebane and Graham city councils.
In Mebane, Boney’s winning entry covered his contention that the city failed to properly advertise a public hearing about a potential new tax on hotels. The city ran the legal notice in an Orange County newspaper, but none of the hotels were located there; all are in Alamance County. In awarding second place for the association’s Michael Kramer Best Public Notice Journalism Award, the contest judges said, “Good coverage and ensuring that notices are properly done.”
In Graham, the category was for Preserving Local History, and consisted of a March 2024 story (“Should sinking floor of Sesquicentennial Park be fixed – or the whole thing demolished, replaced by a building”) and an editorial (“Sesquicentennial Park should be fixed, not eliminated”) on the city’s council’s initial consideration of whether to fix the sinking floor of the Sesquicentennial Park or to raze the park and sell the property, a topic that has continued for the past year-and-a-half. “It’s obvious a lot of effort went into this piece,” the contest judge said. “Great research, great sourcing. I was also pleased to see the newspaper editorial board take a stand. I hope it helped to preserve the park.”
Murawski also won a third place award for best breaking news coverage for his story on Alamance County sheriff’s deputies being called to assist during a campus demonstration at UNC-Chapel Hill.
The contest judge commented, “I liked this sentence: Neither deputies nor Bearcat armored personnel carrier ended up being needed. Excellent introduction.”
Fourth place/honorable mention
The newspaper’s reporters were also recognized with lower-ranking awards, which were variously listed as either fourth place or honorable mention in five additional categories.
The newspaper’s sports reporter, Bob Sutton, was credited with three of the five, for best sports pages; best sports feature for a story on the Allred sisters who play beach volleyball at their respective colleges; and best sports story for describing the come-from-behind victory of Western Alamance boys’ soccer team in the state playoffs.
As for its best sports section/page entries (from the April 25 and September 26 editions), the contest judge wrote of Sutton’s coverage, “Placing this one was easy. Very good coverage and well written. Would enjoy seeing this on a regular basis.”
The sports feature was on Reilly and Madison Allred, sisters who are on their respective beach volleyball teams at Louisiana State University and Coastal Carolina University. Said the contest judges, “There is a deep field of entries, but what separates this story from about five others is the depth of knowledge the writer has of the athletes. The writer did his homework and is obviously a storytelling pro. Great job!”
Sutton was also recognized with a fourth place for best sports story for “Down, but never out: How Western Alamance put together the greatest soccer comeback in state history.” Said the judges, “Great job at capturing the mood. And congrats to the team! Suggest tightening the lede.”
Another fourth place awards went to Murawski for a story on the county’s response to helping provide relief to mountain counties in the wake of Hurricane Helene last fall: “Well written article from a different perspective. It provides a good overview of how the community helped.”
Bailey also won a fourth place award for best reporting on local government for her coverage of a Mebane city council meeting in July 2024 during which the mayor invited representatives of a property owner who had leased land to a popular flea market was held into a side room to discuss a potential compromise. The contest judge noted, “The publisher and reporter are right – the recess meeting-within-a-meeting stunk to high
