Star-Revue wins newspaper awards

The NY Press Association, a trade group for community media, announced the winners of its 2020 Better Newspaper Contest. For the second year in a row, the awards, normally awarded during their weekend convention in Saratoga Springs, were given out in an internet presentation.

The Star-Revue is a perennial winner since our acceptance into the organization in 2012. That year, we won a special award for our coverage of Hurricane Sandy. Other years we have taken awards for investigative reporting, education, coverage of the arts and for the tourist guides that we used to run back when there were tourists in the city.

This year we took three. A prestigious first prize was given to us for Coverage of the Environment, which included Jorge Bello’s ongoing coverage of the Gowanus Superfund project.

We were judged by members of the Pennsylvania News Media Association. A judge wrote of our coverage: “I read all the stories in the category and ‘Superfund Science Advances in Gowanus’ kept coming back to mind. The description won me over. Black Mayo. Ugh. I could just smell and feel the water. Great job.” Other winners in that category included the East Hampton Star and the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.

We also captured a first place in the category “Best Large Space Ad.” We entered one of a series of half page ads prepared by RetroFret – a vintage guitar shop that opened last year on Luquer Street.

The judge wrote “Clean, great design, great visual. Nice testimonial at the bottom. Draws you in.”

Other winners included the Southampton Press and the Mahopac News.

Finally, Steve’s Key Lime got us an honorable mention with his monthly ad series. The category was Best Advertising Campaign. The judge wrote “I appreciate the whimsey of the business itself, carried through the ads.” Other winners included Dan’s Papers and the Warwick Advertiser.

Last year was difficult, as Steve himself wrote in one of his winning ads – we look forward to the 2021 contest!