The Alamance News has been recognized by the National Newspaper Association for its reporting with some of the top awards in the association’s annual “Better Newspaper Contest.”
This association and the awards are separate and distinct from the North Carolina Press Association awards announced on September 10 and reported in last week’s (September 17) edition.
In each contest, the newspaper won eight awards in its circulation category.
Three of the entries that won recognition in the state contest were also winners in the national one. The contest periods are somewhat different. The NNA covers calendar year 2025, while the state contest period runs from April 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026.
The newspaper’s highest honor was its first place designation for Best Local News Coverage among daily and weekly newspapers its size, 3,000 to 5,999 circulation, across the country.
The entries for this award are a composite, consisting of entire newspapers – one from each of two months designated by the association; for 2025, the months were April and September. The newspaper entered its April 17 and September 11 editions.
Among the coverage included in the newspaper’s winning entries were the poor graduation rates among ABSS schools (six out of seven had declined from the previous year, when they already trailed the state averages) as well as three editorial page commentaries on those failures and blame-shifting by some in the public and from the school system, criticizing county commissioners for the schools’ lower graduation rates.
The contest judges highlighted the editorial pages from the two editions, as well as sports reporter Bob Sutton’s coverage of local high school sports and the layout overseen by graphic artist John Adams. “Editorial page and editorial are among the best in this category. Good sports selection. Your paper has a clean layout. Main info is above the fold.”
[Editor’s Note: the latest graduation rates improved, as reported in the September 10, 2026 edition. The Alamance-Burlington school system’s on-time graduation rate improved at four high schools over the past year and increased by 1.5 percentage points overall – from 84.5 percent in 2024-2025 to 85.9 percent in 2025-2026, based on the latest graduation data released last week by the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI). However, ABSS as a whole and three of its seven traditional high schools trailed the most recent statewide graduation rate and the graduation rates at 14 out of 15 other Piedmont-Triad school systems. Only Eastern and Southern (both with 90.5 percent graduation rates), as well as the ABSS Early College, exceeded the state average of 88.8 percent. The school system as a whole (at 85.9 percent) trailed the statewide rate by 2.9 percentage points.]
The award for Best Local News Coverage was the second time in the past three years that The Alamance News has been recognized for the excellence of its overall local news coverage. The newspaper also won first place two years ago.
“We’re always particularly honored to win in this category,” said publisher Tom Boney, Jr. “It’s a recognition of the overall efforts of all reporters and staff to provide the best possible local news coverage for our subscribers and readers. To win that first place designation – much less to do it twice in three years – is particularly gratifying.”
“Between this honor and the first place for Public Service in the state contest, we are so honored to have been recognized by our peers for the quality journalism we’re committed to provide each week,” Boney added.
The publisher’s editorial page opinions were also recognized with a first place award for Best Editorial for a commentary on another ABSS issue – its poor performance on the state’s annual School Performance Grades, when more than half the schools got Ds and Fs on the state’s annual report card – contained in the September 4, 2025 edition.
That editorial, entitled “ABSS named one of the 20 worst school systems in state,” was a part of a first place award in the state contest for Education Reporting. It was reprinted in last week’s (September 17, 2026) edition.
The contest judges made the following comments on the newspaper’s editorial highlighting the school system’s dismal academic performance: “It’s not easy to call an entity out. This writer did a masterful job of doing just that, though. Great editorial. Your newspaper is obviously a great community Gate keeper.”
Chantal coverage
Another dual winner in both the state and national contests was the newspaper’s coverage of Tropical Storm Chantal, which struck the county on July 6, 2025.
In a category for all daily and weekly newspapers, known as Communication in Crisis, The Alamance News won first place. This category honors a newspaper and its staff for their commitment to keeping the community informed despite crisis. Entries are judged on the quality of writing and construction of the article, human interest, and appeal to reader interest.
The newspaper entered stories, most by staff writer Tomas Murawski, from the first three weeks after the storm hit on Sunday night, July 6, 2025 – in the July 10, 17, and 24, 2025 editions.
Among the stories entered was a dramatic page one investigative report (in the July 17 edition) on the tragic death of a Graham resident, 23-year-old Hajar Hassib, who called 9-1-1 the night of the storm as her car was swept off Jim Minor Road into a roadside pond, where it was found two days later.
That individual story by Murawski, largely based on a transcript of her frantic 9-1-1 call, also won third place for investigative reporting in the state contest.
Also included as a part of the award for Communication in Crisis was an editorial by publisher Tom Boney, Jr., entitled “We print local news, not press releases for government officials.” The newspaper’s editorial addressed county attorney Rik Stevens’ retaliation against the newspaper for that story – in which he both cancelled the legal department’s subscription to the newspaper and cut off legal advertising from his department in the newspaper.
The contest judges were effusive in their praise, “Incredible coverage of this crisis. The 911 call and aftermath is powerful in so many ways. All angles of this coverage were extremely well done. Kudos to all involved!”
Best breaking news stories: newspaper sweeps two out of three awards
Murawski’s stories from the first week after the storm, contained in the July 10, 2025 edition – anchored by a front page story, entitled “Rainfall from Tropical Storm Chantal leaves behind tragedies and a real mess across county,” were also recognized with a third place award for Best Breaking News Story.
Said the judges, “What a mess. Great coverage though. Great photography added to the impact.”
On a different front from earlier this year, staff writer Kristy Bailey won second place for Best Breaking News Story for her stories on the first day of the murder trial of Issiah Mekki Ross, a former Eastern Alamance High School student, who was accused of the murders of a classmate, Devin Clark, and another teenager, Lyric Woods of Efland, near Buckhorn Road on the outskirts of Mebane in September 2022.
The trial began on a Wednesday, the newspaper’s deadline before Thursday publication, and the judges commented on the reporter’s ability to assemble so much information while on deadline for that week’s edition: “Short turnaround to publication. Good job covering the trial so close to your deadline.”
Jurors ultimately convicted Ross of second-degree murder in Clark’s death but deadlocked on Woods’ death.
Bailey’s broader coverage – from stories in the January 15, 22, & 29, 2026 editions, as well as the February 5, 2026 coverage of the jury’s verdict – was recognized earlier this month for a second place award from the North Carolina Bar Association, which presents its Media and the Law Award at the annual press meeting; it recognizes outstanding legal reporting that fosters greater public understanding of the legal system and the role of lawyers in today’s society.
It was Bailey’s second consecutive recognition by the state bar association. Last year, she won first place for a dramatic interview, entitled “Disbelief, Anger, Disappointment,” which described the emotions of Kimberly Dick, when state officials paroled her mother’s murderer without giving her a chance to speak at the parole hearing, as she had requested. Dick had been a 6-year-old child when her mother was killed in 1993.
Bailey was also recognized with a second place award for Best Localized National Story – i.e., a local illustration of a national controversy – for stories about a debate at Clover Garden charter school regarding a teacher’s insistence that students use “they/them” pronouns rather than “his/her.”
The judges described Bailey’s winning entry, “Several stories in the same newspaper edition about a charter school’s insistence that students address a female teacher as ‘they’ instead of ‘she’ and several parents who object. Well presented.”
Bailey received a third place recognition for Best Business Story for a June 26, 2025 story, entitled “Mebane has 3 major projects,2 already approved by city council, progressing behind the scenes,” about R+L Trucking, Buc-ee’s, and a downtown mixed-use redevelopment of the former Kingsdown site. The judges commented: “Good story that shows the community is working on all sides to bring more businesses in.”
Also winning a third place award for Preserving Local History, was a unique, front-page editorial by publisher Boney, addressing the need to save the Sesquicentennial Park on the northwest corner of Court Square.
Said the contest judges, “Go for it. Use your role as the paper’s leader and the town’s voice to point out what you believe are short-sighted decisions by the decision makers.”
It was the second consecutive year that the publisher’s efforts had been recognized (last year for second place), also for news coverage of the city council’s deliberations about closing, or moving, the Sesquicentennial Park.
