Fort Atkinson Online congratulates the news and sports staffers of the Daily Jefferson County Union on their wins in the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation’s 2020 Better Newspaper Contest.
The Fort Atkinson-based newspaper’s coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, a local double murder and distance education, as well as its overall page design, won four of its six first-place honors announced in a virtual awards ceremony Friday.
The contest, which received 2,051 entries produced between September 2019 and August 2020 from 103 newspapers, was judged by newspaper professionals from the Texas Press Association.
The Daily Union received a total of 15 awards, including six first places, two seconds, two thirds and five honorable mentions. All were for newspapers of similar size in Division C, unless otherwise noted.
In the category of Breaking News Reporting, the Daily Union placed first for its coverage of the double murders of a Fort Atkinson couple, Nedra and Jim Lemke. Christine Spangler, then serving as Daily Union managing editor; Pam Chickering Wilson, reporter-photographer; and Craig Spychalla, lifestyles and special sections editor, were the contributors.
Chickering Wilson won first place in Enterprise/Interpretive Reporting for her series titled “Distance Learning in Jefferson and Fort Atkinson.”
She and Spychalla together garnered first place in the new category of Coronavirus Coverage.
Spychalla’s story titled “Small Towns, Big Politics: 60 years After Kennedy was in Fort, Why Haven’t Other Presidential Candidates Come to Small Cities in Wisconsin?,” placed first in Localized National Story.
In addition, the Daily Union earned a first place for Overall Page Design. The signature page of that entry focused on the 100th anniversary of Prohibition, designed by Spychalla.
The Daily Union and Spychalla also received first place in Best Special Section (Editorial) for its Spring/Summer 2020 edition of Discover magazine.
Spychalla won second place in Feature Story (Non-profile) for his “The Moment That Changed My World,” a story about Fort Memorial Hospital nurses dealing with the emotional and physical toll of the coronavirus pandemic.
Sportswriter Jack Miller won second place in Sports News Story for “Proud Eagles Fall in Regional Final,” which the judge said was “a good job at covering a disappointing loss in a positive way.”
A third-place award was presented to Spychalla in Reporting on Local Education for his coverage of the Palmyra-Eagle Area School District’s dissolution vote.
Third place also went to Chickering Wilson in the Local Column category in Division B for “Living Rich on Less.”
Spangler garnered an Honorable Mention in Feature Story (Non-Profile) for an article on kindergartners at St. John the Baptist Catholic School in Jefferson holding class via Zoom near the start of the pandemic.
She also received Honorable Mention in Editorial Award for Divisions B and C for her editorials regarding COVID-19 and “Faithful Life of Compassion is One Legacy Lemkes Left Behind.”
In addition, Spangler won Honorable Mention in Overall Page Design among all daily newspapers statewide.
Honorable Mention went to former sports editor Jalen Knuteson and Miller for Best Sports Pages among all dailies.
An Honorable Mention in Feature Story (Profile) was presented to Spychalla for “Finding Faith,” a story about the former “Godfather of Weed” finding faith and music that turn his life around.
All winning entries in the contest may be viewed at https://wnanews.com.
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