We just won 11 national journalism awards!

By KIT SLACK

Missing the summer olympics? Check out your hometown teams’ scores in the National Newspaper Association’s annual competition. 

Three gold medals. Our Laurel columnist Bob Reilly won first place for best humorous column for his profile of the robot at the local Denny’s. 

Humor may be the best treatment of human absence and technological compensation, also themes of our other first-place pieces: best editorial for Hyattsville’s failure to return to in-person council meetings, and best education/literacy story on the county’s school bus driver shortage. 

Two silvers. Hyattsville managing editor Griffin Limerick took second twice. His story on a Hyattsville amateur soccer team with Cameroonian roots won for best sports feature. When and where will Snow Crane land, about a local Japanese ice cream chef, won for best profile. 

Four bronze. For the Hyattsville Life & Times, Beer and American Sign Language build bridges for hearing community, by Jessica Arends, won third for best non-profile feature story.

The May edition of The Laurel Independent won third for Best Front Page Design. Designers Valerie Morris and Ashley Perks shared the podium.

The College Park Here & Now took third twice: best business story, for Downtown businesses get creative to attract customers during the summer, by Adelia McGuire and Sharon O’Malley, and best education/literacy story, for County schools grapple with lead in the drinking water, by Sam Gauntt.

Two strong contenders. The College Park Here & Now, as a publication, won honorable mention for General Excellence. Managing editor Sharon O’Malley’s piece on the 100-year anniversary of the Branchville Fire Department won honorable mention in a category for pieces celebrating local history. 

We are so proud of these stories and these newspapers, of our authors, and of our editorial teams. You should be too! We are able to serve up in-depth hyperlocal news because of support from volunteers, local donors, local advertisers and our city councils.

Please donate to keep award-winning coverage coming.

For readability, we did not specify circulation categories for all of the awards above. For those curious, here is a detailed chart: