Appen sweeps awards in multiple contests
ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Appen Media Group recently took home an array of awards from competitions over the past few months.
Most recently, Appen won 19 awards from the Georgia Press Association. The group was honored earlier this month at the annual conference at Jekyll Island Club for their part in the Georgia Press Association Better Newspaper Contest.
Entries were judged in seven divisions based on circulation. Appen competed in the division which includes all weekly papers of more than 15,000 circulation.
In all, 73 newspapers won a total of 606 awards presented in 41 categories. Judging was by members of the Kansas and Oklahoma press associations in February and March.
Appen took home the following awards:
General Excellence, second place, staff
Local News Coverage, third place, staff
Enterprise Story for Black Box, first place, staff
Best Online News Project for Black Box, second place, staff
Investigative Reporting for Black Box, second and third place, staff
Layout and Design, first place, Production, Newsroom Manager AJ McNaughton
Special Issues, second place, Production, Newsroom Manager AJ McNaughton
Feature Photograph, third place, Editor Kathleen Sturgeon
Feature Writing, second place, Editor Kathleen Sturgeon
Breaking News Writing, second place, Editor Kathleen Sturgeon
Humorous Column, second place, Editor Joe Parker
Sports Photograph, second place, Editor Joe Parker
Additionally, advertising graphic artist David Brown won six awards for his advertising work. They included four first places.
One of the biggest awards of the event was the Open Government Award, which General Manager Hans Appen won for his role creating Black Box, Appen Media’s investigation journalism division.
“For Black Box investigations to win the Open Government Award just a year after we launched the project says a lot about the quality of our staff and, frankly, the importance of what we’re trying to do,” Appen said. “We’ve barely scratched the surface on the full potential of what Black Box can do to connect citizens with their elected officials. We’re honored."
Parker took home a handful of awards earlier this month at the Georgia Sportswriter Association contest.
They included:
Best Local Event Story, second and third place
Best Column, second place
Best Photo, third place
Best Special Section, for high school football in the weekly newspapers
Last month, Appen Media was once again named the “Best of the Best” by the Association of Free Community Papers. Over 1,400 individual entries were judged in 90 categories including ads, editorial content, social media, special sections, media kit and self-promotion.
Appen Media again took home a slew of awards including10 first place, five second place, seven third place and three honorable mentions. Overall, Appen Media was the Best in Show at the event, winning first place for General Excellence.
“Our staff is blazing a trail for how community newspapers can be successful in 2018,” Appen said. “These awards are validation of their vision and passion for the communities they serve."
June 20, 2018